Geo Trust fired another volley in the low-cost market for Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates, GeoTrust slashed its SSL prices in half and launched an aggressive new campaign aimed at attracting SSL customers of Go Daddy and other competitors. (this one appears targeted to Go-Daddy customers)
The Marketing Hype
"Through a new GeoTrust campaign, Go Daddy customers can trade in their Go Daddy SSL certificates for equivalent GeoTrust SSL certificates at no charge. Customers of other competing certificate vendors can take advantage of GeoTrust’s new, dramatically lower pricing when their SSL certificates are up for renewal. For these customers, GeoTrust slashed the original prices of its SSL certificates in half, with QuickSSL Premium domain validated protection starting at $149 per certificate. Switching to GeoTrust SSL is fast, easy and now inexpensive, with domains validated and most certificates issued in just minutes."
The Sad Reality
Go Daddy's regular priced offering is fifty dollars less for what appears to be a superior product. (Correct me if I am wrong with a comment)
Go Daddy's warranty also appears to be for 250K compared to Geo Trust's 100K. Additionally, Go Daddy offers a two year special for a dollar more than Geo Trust's one year offering. Icing on the cake is Go Daddy's Exclusive offer for Open Source projects -- get a FREE 1 year Standard SSL Certificate!
So much for the hype
Thu, 27 January 2011, 02:53
Geo trust become important for today. As long any e-commerce website, they will look for the web to have Geo Trust SSL software. So they wish to look for it before they confidence to make the payment online.
That why Godaddy do need to join their SSL Geo Trust as well.
Tue, 18 January 2011, 01:13
Yeah, I have to say, GoDaddy doesn't strike me a serious choice for any business owner when it comes to an SSL certificate. I always recommend my clients to purchase SSL certificates from GeoTrust, Comodo, or Thawte.
In my opinion, and I've been in the website development and server management business for almost 10 years now, GoDaddy is just a "me too" type of SSL certificate, since they realize they can increase revenue by cross-selling to an unsuspecting customer who is not very knowledgeable (majority of their customer base) at the time of checkout as an "add-on".
I find that the vast majority of SSL providers simply provide better quality, warranty, and service than GoDaddy does on their SSL certificates. It's a business GoDaddy simply should not be in, and that's my 2 cents.
I register all my domains at GoDaddy and I recommend my clients do too, because that is one area where they are really "untouchable" by the vast majority of registrars, but their hosting is shoddy at best, and their SSL certificates are just not the standard that I'm used to.
My opinion on their SSL reflects popular opinion as well according to a study done by Chitika, and a few other metrics measuring companies. Having a GoDaddy SSL certificate with their silly looking "trustlogo" (if you could call it that considering it has their logo on it with the guy with orange hair, and is hardly a serious looking logo), is the business equivalent of accepting PayPal payments exclusively for your online business nowadays -- your shopping cart abandonment and conversion rates will reflect that customers do not trust your site based on your GoDaddy SSL.
Invest the money in the life of your business, and get a REAL SSL certificate from a leading provider -- you don't have to go with Verisign, but hey Comodo, GeoTrust, and Thawte are EXCELLENT alternatives, and give your online business a MUCH more serious appearance in terms of security and quality with their trustlogos, which don't look silly at all, and represent the investment you put into your online business.
Fri, 12 November 2010, 11:39
Thanks for the comment Deena..
While it may be true that the vast majority of GoDaddy SSL may be standard certs, I compared the Premium SSL offered by GoDaddy with the "Equivalent" GeoTrust QuickSSL Premium certificate (Equivalent is your word not mine)
I merely wrote what I observed based on Geo's press release and looking at a comparison of both offerings.
As to your other points, GoDaddy's pitch was brilliant when the web was ruled by hormone driven male kiddies... it has matured slightly since those days :>)
I will also add that "HostJury has zero connection to GoDaddy..."
Thu, 11 November 2010, 19:41
Hi. I work for GeoTrust. Here's a little correction and then some additional thoughts...
1. The vast majority of websites with SSL certificates from Go Daddy use their Domain Validated Standard SSL certificates. These certificates only carry a warranty of $10k, not $250k. Equivalent GeoTrust QuickSSL Premium certificates come with a $100k warranty. Only the Premium SSL certificates from Go Daddy come with the $250k warranty.
GeoTrust offers a few softer benefits as well.
GeoTrust, a company only known for security, has a less controversial public image and some people would prefer to avoid associating their web site security with the Go Daddy girl advertising image.
Also, Go Daddy sells a broad range of services, many completely unrelated to SSL and some customers would rather avoid the cross selling they do.
Everyone can make their own decision but if you cross reference the Alexa 1 Million busiest web sites with the NetCraft SSL survey it appears that more serious website owners use GeoTrust.
Tue, 9 November 2010, 01:17
Agreed on all but leading with the warranty comparison, that's `hype` :)
carl^