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Comment by ineptech | Hacker News Reader

Are they still charging for SSL? Last I checked, they made it as hard as possible to use letsencrypt, and had a rather deceptive "Free SSL if you buy a domain!" promotion that doesn't actually include a cert.

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How exactly do they make it hard to use Let's Encrypt? The HTTP challenge just needs the A/AAAA records that your web server needs anyway and for the DNS challenge (only really needed for wildcard certs) they do seem to at least support using your own name servers (as do most registrars): https://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx...

By not integrating with it, or even having an article on how to set it up yourself. When something is effectively free, and a lot of your competitors offer it for free, and your website says you offer it for free, but you actually charge for it, that's just BS. Reminds me of those wireless providers that kept charging outrageous rates for SMS right up until the very end.

I haven't had issues with let's encrypt with them in the last 2 years, though I do recall seeing free SSL promotions and never a certificate.

The "free SSL" meant adding your domain as a sub of theirs, i.e. https://yourdomain.namecheap.com. I fell for it and was pretty salty to see how much they charge and the lack of a letsencrypt integration.

And on that note, Letsencrypt has a helpful list of hosting companies that automate the process for you: https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/web-hosting-who-support-...

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