Why and how to protect your website with encryption through an HTTPS certificate

• 1. Learn why your website needs an HTTPS certificate.
• 2. Check if your website is already HTTPS certified.
• 3. Learn about the 3 types of certificates.
• 4. Buy or get a free HTTPS certificate.
• 5. View a list of certificate vendors.

1. Learn why your website needs an HTTPS certificate.

To use our new embedded checkout, your website needs an HTTPS certificate. Buying or getting a free HTTPS certificate has other benefits:

• It prevents third-parties from viewing sensitive information — like credit card numbers — which attendees send from their computer to the server hosting your website

• Interested buyers will be more likely to trust your website when they see the HTTPS certificate

• Your website may be ranked higher in Google's and other search engine's search results

NOTE: With the new embedded checkout, ticket buyers stay on your website to buy tickets. It connects attendees more closely with your brand and minimizes any obstacles in the purchase process, which means interested people are more likely to buy tickets.

2. Check if your website is already HTTPS certified.

You can enter your website’s address (URL) into an online certificate checker to see what encryption is enabled on your website. Some reputables ones are:

SSL Labs SSL Server TestDigicert SSL Certificate CheckerSymantec Crypto Report

3. Learn about the 3 types of certificates.

There are 3 types of HTTPS certificates. Details like cost, setup time, and what documents you need to provide (see table above) may vary. Any of the 3 types work with with Eventbrite’s new embedded checkout.

• Domain Validated (DV) Certificate - Easist certificate to set up. Good for small businesses and websites with a single domain (e.g., https://www.organizer.com).

• Organization Validated (OV) Certificate - You need to collect paperwork before you can start the process. Good for businesses that collect sensitive user information (beyond what attendees enter into Eventbrite’s new embedded checkout). Allows you to certify subdomains (e.g., https://www.subdomain.organizer.com).

• Extended Validation SSL Certificate - You need extensive paperwork proving the existence and location of your organization before you can start the process. Good for corporations and government agencies.

TIP: Read About SSL’s article on the 3 types of SSL certificates to learn more.

NOTE: If you have different web pages but only one domain — for example, “https://www.myevent.com/faqs” and “https://www.myevent.com/tickets” — you only need to certify the domain, in our example “https://www.myevent.com”. “/faqs” and “buytickets” are not sub-domains, but different web pages living on the same domain. A sub-domain would look like “https://www.subdomain.myevents.com”

4. Buy or get a free HTTPS certificate.

To get your website HTTPS certified, you have to buy a certificate or get a free one from a Certificate Authority (CA) or CA authorized SSL Reseller.

• Paid certificates – Can have various benefits. For example, sellers of paid certificates may offer extensive support to help you through setup.

• Free certificates – May offer online help content, but can be more difficult to set up and may require some technical skills.

5. View a list of certificate vendors.

We recommend you check out multiple vendors to compare prices, what they offer, and how much support you can expect:

• SSL Shopper’s SSL Certificate Wizard & About SSL’s SSL Wizard - Answer a few questions about your needs and these wizards provide you with a list of matching SSL Certificates. They may not always have the best prices, but can help you figure out which questions to ask to find the right certificate for your needs.

• CheapSSLShop.com - A CA authorized SSL reseller. CA authorized reseller’s provide discounted certificates with the same quality as primary vendors

• Comodo - Highly reputed paid provider of certificates

• Digicert - Highly reputed paid provider of certificates

• NameCheap - Highly reputed paid provider of certificates — cheap and premium ones

• Let’s Encrypt - A free Certificate Authority, supported by internet institutions like Mozilla and Google Chrome. Difficult to set up without web development knowledge, but a large list of web hosting providers offer you support in setup.

NOTE: Eventbrite can’t walk you through setting up a certificate on your site since setup can differ based on your website, web hosting provider, and the specific certificate you choose.