Noticed the following tweet the other day:
The clock is ticking on the HTTPS migration. A good place to get free ssl @ https://t.co/XIe0GsKb48 by @letsencrypt pic.twitter.com/1LkO4fXPN9
— nixCraft (@nixcraft) February 2, 2016
Thought this would be a perfect time to switch my website to HTTPS only. Previously I have played around with using my own CA, trusting this CA on any computer I use, and then I can generate my own certificates as and when I feel like it. This is generally alright for personal use, but for public use there is little benefit doing this rather than just using self signed certs.
I found letsencrypt fairly easy to use, the only problem was I had to bring Apache down for a few minutes while I requested a cert – this is a minor thing, but I do host a few other websites on the same VPS I use for my website, so something to bear in mind. The expiry time seems pretty short too, only extending 3 months into the future by default.
Anyway, it beats paying for a cert 🙂