Let's Encrypt enters public beta: free HTTPS certificates for everyone!

Let's Encrypt is a joint project from EFF, Mozilla and others that allows anyone to create a free HTTPS certificate in minutes, this being a critical piece of infrastructure, necessary for making connections between a web-server and a browser secure and private.

Certificates are big business, and the firms that issue them make a lot of money and also make it extraordinarily hard to get a cert. Let's Encrypt aims at changing the rules for people who want to make their sites secure.


Anyone who has gone through the trouble of setting up a secure website knows what a hassle getting and maintaining a certificate can be. Let's Encrypt automates away the pain and lets site operators turn on and manage HTTPS with simple commands.

No validation emails, no complicated configuration editing, no expired certificates breaking your website. And of course, because Let's Encrypt provides certificates for free, no need to arrange payment.

This page describes how to carry out the most common certificate management functions using the Let's Encrypt client. You're welcome to use any compatible client, but we only provide instructions for using the client that we provide.

Let's Encrypt: How It Works