Free Email Certificate – Can You Get One?

Looking for the best free S/MIME email certificate? Learn what you need to know about these digital certificates and explore some the best alternatives 

“Can I get a free email certificate?” Technically, yes, but there are some big caveats to that answer (as well as red flags).  

Just because a company offers free S/MIME certificates doesn’t mean they’re the best choice for you or your business. We’ll explore why that’s the case and examine several low-cost alternatives to free email digital certificates.  

A Free Email (S/MIME) Certificate: Why Not All That Glitters Is Gold 

When considering whether to use a free email encryption certificate, it’s a good idea to evaluate what you’re getting. Much like free SSL/TLS certificates, the bad news is that free S/MIME certificates only provide the bare minimum:  

• Free S/MIME certificates only provide domain validation. These free email digital certificates don’t require any type of business (organization) validation. This makes it harder for email recipients to distinguish emails from legitimate businesses from those sent by hackers who get free certificates.  

• Free email digital certificates have shorter validity periods. Some have maximum lifespans of three months, meaning you’ll have to go through the process of getting a new certificate every 90 days. This differs from commercial S/MIME certificates, which have a maximum validity of two years.  

• S/MIME certificates you can get for free often lack technical support. Businesses offering free email certificates aren’t motivated to invest the time, money, or people into supporting certificates that don’t make them money.  

The good news is that there are affordable email certificate options that consider these other factors. Since there isn’t a free email certificate option that likely meets all your needs, it’s time to examine some of the best free S/MIME certificate alternatives.  

Free Email Certificate Low-Cost Alternatives That Pack a Punch  

If you’re looking for something that offers more bells and whistles — and that doesn’t require the renewal more than once every two years — there’s a range of Comodo secure email certificates to choose from: 

	Basic Strict Mailbox Validated S/MIME	Pro Strict Multipurpose Mailbox Validated S/MIME	Enterprise Multipurpose Organization Validated S/MIME
Ideal For	Private Users, Freelancers, and Sole Proprietors	Small Businesses and Organizations	Medium and Large Companies & Organizations
Max. Validity Term	2 years	2 years	2 years
Validation Requirements	Email Control Verification	Email Control Verification	Email Control & Organization Verification
What Displays to Recipients	[email protected]	[email protected]	[email protected] and your organization’s name
Email-Signing	YES	YES	YES
Email Encryption	YES	YES	YES
Client Authentication	NO	YES	YES
Document Signing	NO	YES	YES
Browsers Compatibility	100% email client & Browser compatibility	100% email client & Browser compatibility	100% email client & Browser compatibility
Price	$14.95/year	$33.98/year	$45.28/year
	Buy Now	Buy Now	Buy Now

So, while you may not be able to get a free email encryption certificate, it means you’ll pay as little as $1.25 per month or $0.40 per day to be able to digitally sign your emails and send encrypted messages. You’ll be able to do this  

• with 24/7 access to a knowledgeable customer support team, and 

• without the hassle of having to renew your certificate every three months or every year (like free email signing certificate providers require).  

It’s a win-win for you and your customers.  

Emails = Hackers’ Favorite Avenue of Attack 

By the end of 2027, The Radicati Group estimates that there will be more than 408 billion emails sent and received each day. Many of these emails will be sent for professional reasons and could include super-sensitive product details, financial information, and proprietary research data.  

Organizations lacking email identity on their domains are appealing targets for cybercriminals.   

Perception Point’s 2024 Annual Report of Cybersecurity Trends & Insights indicates an average of 55% of all brand impersonation attacks companies experienced in 2023 stemmed from their own brands. Furthermore, the report’s data also shows that one in five emails the company’s Incident Response team observed in 2023 weren’t legitimate.  

Knowing this, giving employees and customers a way to verify digital identity and that your messages are legitimate is crucial. To do that, you need to look beyond basic free email certificates.  

Keep Messages Private & Secure Using a Commercial (Not Free) S/MIME Email Certificate 

There’s no doubt that you also need to secure your emails from cybercriminals. So, how do you do it? By using S/MIME secure email certificates.  

Comodo CA, one of the world’s most trusted certificate authorities (CAs), issues email certificates at attractively low prices. These S/MIME email certificates are known as Comodo Personal Authentication Certificates. 

S/MIME, which stands for secure/multipurpose internet mail extensions, is an internet protocol that is used to protect emails using cryptographic functions such as encryption and digital signatures. (Hence, why these certificates are known as S/MIME certificates.) 

With an email security certificate, your email security is protected in three key ways: 

1. Authentication of the Email Sender 

Messages signed using an organization-validated secure email certificate allow recipients to feel confident that they’re from a legitimate sender within your organization.  

2. End-to-End Encryption of the Email Data and Attachments 

When sending an email to someone, the message leaves your server and transmits to the server of the recipient. During this transit, there’s a massive risk of your emails getting intercepted or even tampered with. An S/MIME certificate protects you against such attempts by encrypting the information before it leaves your inbox. This method of end-to-end encryption ensures no hacker can see the data, let alone tamper with it in transit. 

3. Digital Integrity Protection of the Email Messages 

An email security certificate allows you to digitally sign your emails to prove their legitimacy and that no one has tampered with the data in transit. It works much better than handwritten signatures, as no one can forge your cryptographic digital signature. 

Final Thoughts: You Need an Email Certificate (Even If It’s Not Free) 

We know you came here looking for a free email certificate, but as you’ve learned, using a low-cost S/MIME email signing and encryption certificate such as Comodo Personal Authentication Certificate is typically the best option for businesses because they’re low-cost and require less management.  

You can get these certificates at super-cheap prices and use them to simultaneously help protect your brand’s email reputation and the security of your most sensitive communications from cybercriminals. Remember, when you spend on security for your business, it’s an investment, not a “cost.”