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For many years now, we have been using Cloudflare’s free SSL certificate by simply changing nameservers and getting proxied through Cloudflare.
But recently I discovered you can create an SSL certificate for free on Cloudflare with the Private Key and Certificate Key details for free.
As we all know, Cloudflare partners with a few Certificate Authorities. This means they can issue and manage SSL certificates.
Most people know this already but have never known about the free SSL certificate it offers.
Most people get to pay as much as $60 per year for an SSL certificate. Getting it for free on Cloudflare will save you that much money.
Table of Contents:
What’s an SSL Certificate
A secure socket layer (SSL) certificate has become so common most site owners don’t know much about it.
For anyone using the internet to access content on your website, there has to be back and forth communication between the user’s browser and your web server (hosting your site’s content).
Most times when you create a website, it works on the HTTP (insecure) protocol.
With this insecure communication protocol, a hacker can easily interfere with or read the messages sent using this protocol.
To protect the communication, you need a secure protocol for information transfer.
This is where an SSL certificate comes in. Once installed, all communications between the server and the user’s computer will be encrypted.
Communications from your website won’t be done in plain text but with encrypted data that can only be identified and decrypted by the user’s computer and the web server hosting your website.
This means no third party can gain access to the information being transferred.
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How to Create an Account on Cloudflare for Your Website or app
If you don’t have an account on Cloudflare, here is how to set things up with your website.
- Visit Cloudflare.com
- Click on Sign up
- Enter your email and password, then click on sign up
- Select “Add a website or application”
- Enter your domain name, example, digitalbizweb.com
- Next, pick a plan. If you want a free plan, scroll down, select the option, then click on confirm plan
- For DNS records, click on Start a quick scan. Cloudflare will scan your domain and harvest the DNS records.
- Once the records are scanned, scroll down and click on Continue to set up name servers.
- Copy the nameservers and install them at your domain names registrar’s setup for your domain. Click on Continue.
If you don’t know how to change nameservers at your registrar’s setup, contact them or search for it online. You could also drop a comment below. - Review your settings, then click on Continue to ‘domainname.com’ overview
That’s it.
Wait for the changes to take effect. Once it’s done, you will receive an email from Cloudflare telling you that your website is now active on Cloudflare.
From then on, all traffic to your site will be proxied through Cloudflare.
This ensures you’re making use of Cloudflare’s free CDN to serve your users.
It also gives you an automatic free SSL certificate.
But if you need to set up an SSL certificate for your website, app, or web host/server, that’s what we’ll be working on in the next section below.
A Free SSL Certificate from Cloudflare
Every SSL certificate comes with important credentials like the Certificate Key and Private Key. Some will also include a Certificate Authority bundle.
This is why it’s almost impossible to make and use a fake SSL certificate.
It can only be created and issued by a Certificate Authority (CA).
The good thing is that Cloudflare has partnered with up to four certificate authorities to bring us both paid and free SSL certificates.
These certificate authorities are Let’s Encrypt, Google Trust Services, Sectigo, and DigiCert.
One thing to keep in mind is that DigiCert will be deprecated soon.
This gives Cloudflare everything it needs to provide and manage SSL certificates.
And with their set up, you don’t only get the SSL protocol, you also get a better version of the security protocol known as TLS.
So how do you get one free for your website?
How to Generate and Use a Free SSL Certificate on Cloudflare
With these instructions, you can generate a free SSL certificate with a unique Certificate Key and Private Key.
- To get started, you have to create an account on Cloudflare. If you already have one, simply log in using dash.cloudflare.com/login
- Click on your email to open your website’s list
- Select the site you want to work on
- Go to SSL/TLS
- Click on Origin Server
- Click on Create Certificate
- On the next interface, set the options to “Generate private key and CSR with Cloudflare”. For Private key type, use RSA (2048). If everything is set already, keep scrolling.
- Set validity. You can pick from 7 days, 30 days, 90 days, all the way up to 15 years.
- Then click on Create
- Your SSL certificate will be created and you’ll get your Certificate key and private key.
Note, your private key will be displayed only once so be sure to make use of it. You also need to know that hackers may be able to decrypt your data if they get a hold of your private key. This is why I use it once generated so I don’t have to save it on my PC. You can’t be too careful. - Copy the credentials and apply it at your web server.
That’s how to create an SSL/TLS certificate on Cloudflare and use it to encrypt communications on your website and web apps for free.
How Long Do Cloudflare Certificates Last?
Since you’re getting the certificate for free, it’s a good thing to know how long they’ll last.
The surprising answer is, they are available for life. Yep, for life. Technically, you can’t have a certificate that lasts you a lifetime.
So how does Cloudflare ensure you always have things up and running. They renew the certificate automatically every three months or less.
This is because short-lived certificates provide better security. Since someone is always trying to get the security keys and use it to hack communications, it’s good if the system automatically creates a new one every 3 months or less.
So you will have your protection for life. Cloudflare will handle all that’s needed to keep your security keys fresh and secure.
