Free SSL Certificate In cPanel With ZeroSSL & Certbot

Hurray :) I have written a new article on Free SSL Certificate For CPanel which is free and library is open source. The link is more relevant if you don't want to spend extra bucks on SSL certificate.

NOTE: NOW ZEROSSL HAS MADE ONLY 3 TIMES SSL GENERATION FREE WHICH MEANS. EACH RENEWAL LASTS FOR 3 MONTHS. I AM WORKING ON TO FIND ALTERNATIVE'S. I WILL UPDATE ONCE I WRITE ANOTHER ARTICLE ON THE SAME :)

Hello friends, In this article I will show you how to create a free SSL certificate to your domain in cPanel all for free with Certbot & ZeroSSL. Yup you heard it right. No need to spend heft amounts.

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Prerequisites

I hope you might have setup your website and pushed your code to cPanel public directory and waiting to install SSL certificate for free.

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Step 1 - Generate SSL Certificate & Verification (From ZEROSSL.COM)

The first step is to generate SSL certificate with using ZEROSSL.COM, first go the site and click on the FREE SSL CERTIFICATE WIZARD-> START like shown in the following image

FREE SSL ->START

ZEROSSL Site To Generate Free Certificate

ADD DOMAIN NAMES COMMA SEPARATED & GENERATE CSR KEY

Next add your domains comma separated like shown in the following image and then click NEXT

ZEROSSL Add Domain Name To Generate Keys

Make Sure to check mark ACCEPT ZEROSSL TOS & ACCEPT LETS ENCRYPT SA

Once you click NEXT ZEROSSL will Generate CSR Key make sure to copy it securely or download it for later usage. The CSR key will be shown in the same page on the right panel. Once you download it or copy it click NEXT.

ACCOUNT KEYS (PRIVATE KEY & CERTIFICATE)

Once you click next ZEROSSL will generate ACCOUNT KEYS & will look like the following screen. Make sure to copy it to safe place & download it for future use.

Account Keys (Private Key & Certificate)

GENERATE VERIFICATION OF KEYS

One you click next in the above step after copying your account keys, ZEROSSL will generate the VERIFICATION KEYS as shown in the following image, which need to be added in your cPanel public_html.

ZEROSSL Verification Keys

VERIFY GENERATE KEYS BELONGS TO DOMAIN

Now go to your webroot ie public_html unless you have multiple folder make sure to put in the public_html itself else go to your specific folder inside public_html and follow the following process

cPanel -> public_html -> .well-known -> acme-challenge

Create .well-known/acme-challenge/ folder and upload the VERIFICATION KEYS. After uploading the VERIFICATION KEYS it will look like the following

Upload VERIFICATION KEYS Like Shown In Image

DOWNLOAD PRIVATE & PUBLIC KEY

Once you add the the VERIFICATION KEYS and click next it will validate the file in your domains and if everything you have add then you will get the following screen

Certificate Ready (Public & Private Key)

In the above screen once you scroll down you will be able to PRIVATE & PUBLIC keys. Now download your PRIVATE & PUBLIC keys which you need to paste in the cPanel.

NOTE: DON'T CLOSE THE WINDOW AFTER GETTING PRIVATE & OTHER KEYS.

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Step 2 - Add Public & Private Keys In cPanel

Now go to your cPanel -> Security -> SSL/TLS as shown in the following image and click on it

cPanel -> Security -> SSL/TLS

In the next page after clicking SSL/TLS -> click Manage SSL Sites under [Install and Manage SSL for your site (HTTPS)]

Install & Manage SSL

Once you click on Manage SSL Sites you will get the following image. Now copy & paste the PRIVATE & PUBLIC & CERTIFICATE keys in the following screen

Mange SSL Certificate Image

i. Select domain name from drop down

ii. Add certificate (NOTE - Here zerossl might copy CRT & CABUNDLE keys in same text selection so make sure to cut and paste separately )

iii. Add Private key from the ssl certificate key you downloaded

iv. You will have this with point ii so make sure to cut and paste here.

v. Click Install Certificate to install the certificates.

Hurray! You have successfully install your certificates.

NOTE: Still you haven't redirected all your http requests to https stay tuned till last. I am gonna show this in Step 4

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Step 3 - Testing Your Domain For HTTPS

Now go to your browser and type https://your_domain_name you will gets the HTTPS site.

Yay! But hold on. Not all your HTTP requests are getting redirected to HTTPS site. Check out next step for this changes.

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Step 4 - .htaccess For HTTP to HTTPS Redirection

Now create .htaccess in your domain root ie public_html or folder where you have project, ie. where you have placed .well-known folder

.htaccess File

In .htaccess file add the following code

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]

This code basically redirects all your HTTP to HTTPS

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Conclusion

In this tutorial, you learned to generate public & private keys with ZEROSSL & use the same to redirect all the traffic from HTTP to HTTPS from cPanel with .htaccess

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