Shared SSL Certificates (Windows)

Shared SSL enables your customers to secure connections to their websites without purchasing a valid SSL certificate or generating a self-signed one. Instead, they can "share" the SSL certificate installed on a pre-defined domain belonging to you by means of a virtual directory pointing to the httpdocs or httpsdocs folder of their own website.

Enabling Shared SSL

Note: To enable shared SSL, you need to secure at least one website you own on the server with a valid SSL certificate first.

To enable shared SSL, go to Tools & Settings > Shared SSL (in the Security group), select the Switch on shared SSL checkbox, then select the domain that will be sharing its SSL certificate with those belonging to customers. This domain is called the master SSL domain. When you have finished, click OK.

Securing Domains with Shared SSL

To secure a domain with shared SSL, open the corresponding subscription for managing, go to Websites & Domains > Shared SSL, select the Switch on shared SSL checkbox, then type in the name of the virtual directory that will be created for the master SSL domain and select either httpdocs or httpsdocs from the menu to specify to which of the website's folders the virtual directory will be pointing. You can also select the Make this website accessible only through secure connections checkbox to make the website inaccessible via the HTTP protocol. When you have finished, click OK.

After enabling shared SSL for a domain, you need to construct a special URL to access it via the HTTPS protocol. The URL should look like this:

https://<master SSL domain name>/<your virtual directory name>

For example, if the master SSL domain name is example.com, and your virtual directory name is mywebsite, the resulting URL will look like this:

https://example.com/mywebsite