And you're telling me that companies that have to buy servers (which break, go obsolete, and require power in the meantime), racks, cooling, warehouse space, backup power, and fast and redundant Internet connections, and setup a good way for people to manage their hosting (not to mention support!) "don't have a lot of the large up-front an[d] annual costs"?
And no, I'm not saying they don't have large costs. You can become a webhost with a couple of co-lo boxes for relatively little cost. You can't do that with a CA.
@nickf i will buy an SSL certificate i need your advice. my needs are it should not ask any security alert dialog boxes and supports FF, Safari, Opera and IE. that's all. does those 20$ range ones work for me or what is your suggestion?
one more question how does insurance work? Merchant accounst also have insurance. Are these same? Please explain this too.