Do browsers trust your site?

It proves to browsers that your site really is your site, and lets them encrypt everything visitors send - passwords, forms, payments. Without a valid one, browsers mark your site "Not secure" or block it with a full-page warning. (Today’s certificates use TLS - SSL is the older name that stuck.)

Whether browsers trust your certificate, whether it’s issued for your exact domain, whether the server sends the full certificate chain, when it expires, which TLS version the connection uses, and whether visitors on http:// are moved to https:// with HSTS in place.

Certificates are signed through a chain: your certificate, an intermediate, then a root that browsers trust. If your server doesn’t send the intermediate, desktop browsers often fill the gap themselves - but apps, APIs, payment gateways and older phones fail to connect.

Because automatic renewal fails quietly - a changed DNS record, a moved server or an expired card is enough. Free certificates last 90 days and renew about a month before they expire, so fewer than 14 days left usually means renewal has stopped working.

A response header that tells browsers to always use https:// for your site, even when someone types http:// or clicks an old link. It closes the brief window where the first request could be intercepted before the redirect.

Yes. We connect to your site the same way a browser does and read its public certificate and homepage headers. Nothing is stored and no login is needed.