Latest news at Elive

The SSL industry is undergoing some important changes in the coming years, SSL cert validity periods are reducing. Here is an outline of the changes:

• Before March 2026, SSL certificates typically had a validity of 1 year, renewed each year.
• From March 2026, a certificate can only have a maximum validity of 200 days. You still purchase for 1 year, but you would have to re-issue and re-install the cert mid-term. No extra cost, just an extra step to ensure a secure connection.
• From March 2027, the validity period will reduce to 100 days, so a re-issue and install needs to happen a further 3 times in the year. Again, it does not cost extra, but requires action multiple times a year.
• From March 2029,  the validity period will reduce to 47 days.

Shortening certificate lifespans is an industry-wide move aimed at improving security by limiting the time a compromised key can be misused. 

HOW ARE ELIVE’s SSL OFFERINGS AFFECTED?

• From 1st June 2026, we are no longer selling new commercial SSL certs
• All our Shared Hosting packages already support the FREE Lets Encrypt SSL ACME system, so certs are automatically re-issued every 30 days, to keep your website secure.
• If your Certificate relates to an external service, such as your own in-house server or a third party hosted service, we will continue to offer your certificate for annual renewal. 
  

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO:

1. Hosting with ELIVE:

• You do not need to do anything. We will handle the changeover for you. From the 1st June 2026 , you will no longer be billed for a commercial SSL cert by ourselves, and your website will instead use the Free Lets Encrypt Certificate automatically.
  This means one less bill each year, saving you money.
• If you add any new domains to your hosting panel going forward, then you can easily use the SSL/TLS Certificates section of your Hosting Panel to install new Lets Encrypt SSL certs.
• You can still obtain commercial certs from Third Parties if you wish, and manage them directly in your Hosting Control Panel.

2. External Service

• If you have your SSL certificate installed with a third party hosting service, you will need to ensure that you implement a system to manually re-issue and install your certificate multiple times a year.
• First Review if you still require your SSL Certificate, and if not, let us know and we will cancel the renewal for you.
• We would also encourage you to connect with the service provider that your certificate is installed on, to find out what plans they have for introducing an automated SSL renew/re-issue procedure using ACME standards.

If you have any questions, please open a ticket in your Client Account at https://www.elive.net