&gt; But if you do not need wildcards, the StartSSL free certificate has been an option for a long time:<p>In fact, the free StartSSL Class 1 DV certificates are only available for non-commercial purposes. They DO enforce this, I have had a cert turned down by their &quot;CertMaster&quot; because they considered it part of a commercial operation.<p>That is why Let&#x27;s Encrypt is doubly cool - it is not (at least, in any obvious way) motivated by $$.