Admin’s Quick Guide: How to Get a Wildcard SSL Certificate

The “Quick and Dirty” Guide on How to Get a Wildcard Certificate for Your Site

Whether you’re looking to secure all of your first-level subdomains or have multiple levels of subdomains to secure, we’ll quickly walk you through the required steps for how to get the best wildcard SSL certificate for your website.

1. Choose the Right Wildcard SSL Certificate

Review the table below to compare basic vs multi-domain wildcard certificates to see what best suits your needs:

	Single Domain Wildcard	Multi-Domain Wildcard
What It Secures	Secures unlimited single-level subdomains for a single domain	Secures a single fully qualified domain name and additional domains and subdomains listed as subject alternative name (SAN) domains.
How Many Subject Alternative Name (SAN) Domains It Secures	N/A	Up to 1,000 SANs for select multi-domain wildcard certificates
Warranty	Up to $250,000	Up to $250,000
Cost	As low as $69.78 per year	As low as $156.02 per year
	Shop Wildcard Certificates	Shop Multi-Domain Wildcards

You can buy one from a certification authority (CA) or a trusted reseller like ComodoSSLstore.com. Wondering what the cheapest wildcard SSL certificate is and where to get it? Look no further — be sure to check out our SSL coupons and promo codes page for additional discounts on your purchase!

2. Generate a Wildcard Certificate Signing Request (CSR)

The CSR is a multi-step process that essentially serves as an application for a digital certificate. It allows you to generate the certificate’s private key and provide the CA with certain necessary information about your domain/subdomains, your organization, and the certificate’s key size and format.

Depending on which type of wildcard certificate you choose, you must adhere to specific format requirements for the Common Name field:

Type of SSL Certificate	Common Name	What It Covers
Single Domain (Basic) Wildcard	Must use a wildcard domain (e.g., *.example.com for first-level subdomains or *.subdomain1.example.com for second-level subdomains)	One certificate covers a single level of subdomains, (i.e., first-level subdomains, second-level subdomains, OR third-level subdomains).   You’d need a separate certificate to cover each subdomain level.
Multi-Domain Wildcard	Must use a fully qualified domain name (i.e., example.com or www.example.com)	One certificate secures up to 250 or 1,000 domains or subdomains as SANs, depending on the certificate you choose.

The CSR will look like this when you’re trying to get a wildcard certificate:

Looking for details on how to generate a CSR for a wildcard SSL certificate? We’ve got you covered.

After completing the CSR form, you must submit it to the issuing CA of your choice. (This is typically done in the next step of the process.) Be sure to also save your private key information that was generated during the CSR process, as you won’t be able to retrieve it again in the future (and the CA won’t have a copy of it).

3. Complete the Certificate Enrollment Process

You can complete the certificate enrollment process using the Certificate Enrollment tool in the CertPanel dashboard. Depending on which certificate and validation level you choose, you must:

• specify which domain the certificate will be issued to
• choose whether you want to manually install the certificate or use our automated solution (e.g., AutoInstall SSL)
• submit a copy of your wildcard CSR
• select your preferred domain validation method and contact information
• read and affirm that you agree to the subscriber agreement
• specify whether you want to receive any renewal reminders or enroll in our AutoRenew service

At the end of the process, you’ll be prompted to start the validation process.

4. Complete the Domain Validation Control (DCV) Process

To get a wildcard certificate, you must prove ownership and control of the domain in question using either email- or DNS-based validation. Industry baseline requirements prevent the use of HTTP/HTTPS file-based validation for wildcard SSL/TLS certificates. (This is because domain control validation proves that someone controls that specified fully qualified domain name [FQDN], but it doesn’t ensure that they control the entire namespace, which includes subdomains.)

If you get an organization validation (OV) wildcard, there is additional information you must provide to the CA to validate your organization’s authenticity.

Now That You’ve Got Your Wildcard Certificate, It’s Time to Install It

As far as what you need to do to get a wildcard certificate, that’s it!

The next step is to install the wildcard certificate on your site’s web server. You can do this either using CertPanel’s AutoInstall SSL feature or by installing it manually via your site’s cPanel.

CertPanel is a new, cost-effective option for small businesses that desire automation but can’t afford (or need) all of the functions covered in traditional enterprise certificate automation solutions. It offers flexible plans that enable you to purchase only the tools you need and want to protect your servers and websites.