SSL on More than One Domain? You Will Need UCC SSL

In other words, buying an SSL certificate for example dot com does not allow you to use the same certificate for anotherdomain dot com or secure.example dot com.

Do you have muliple subdomains needing SSL? The answer is wildcard SSL. What about for people who have lots of domains and maybe even additional subdomains? The best possible solution is Unified Communications Certificate (UCC) SSL.

The Difference Between Wildcard and UCC SSL

A single wildcard SSL certificate can be used on multiple subdomains by supplying a Common Name with with a wildcard. For instance, the Common Name *.example dot com permits you utilize one wildcard certificate for www.example dot com, buy.example dot com, or secure.example dot com, but not on example.org, anothername dot com, or transact.anothername dot com.

The good news is that UCC SSL will work just fine in the final example. Instead of using wildcards in the Common Name, UCC SSL certificates make use of the Subject Alternative Name (SAN) on the certificate. This way, more specific domain names can be added to a single UCC SSL certificate. A single UCC SSL certificate will be sufficient for example dot com, secure.example dot com, anothername dot com, anothername.net, and onemore dot com. The number of domains and subdomains that can be added depends on individual deals with the certificate provider.

UCC SSL: Laying Down the Benefits

Purchasing just one UCC SSL certificate for all your domains will obviously save you a lot of money. Typical SSL certificates at $150 each may be fine for people who need SSL on only a few domains, but what about five domains? That's $750! Compare that to UCC SSL which costs only about $300 for at least 3 domain names and you'll get an idea of how much you're saving.

Some UCC SSL providers will let you add more domain names at an additional $40 each. Some providers will even let you add a limited number of subdomains on the UCC SSL certificate at no charge as a bonus.

Another advantage to having UCC SSL is manageability. It's not easy to purchase, set up, and then renew annually a number of SSL certificates. It's not a good idea to let one person manage several SSL certificates because they may very easily make mistakes. All the time and effort that you put into fixing errors will cost you money. On the other hand, think about worrying about just a single UCC SSL certificate. It's a whole lot easier to manage a single certificate. Chances of errors are easily reduced.


You should know that Extended Valitdation (EV) is completely compatible with UCC SSL certificates. Customers and other visitors of your website will see their browser's address bar turn green. This is good because your visitors know that all transactions they make are secure.

Drawbacks of Using UCC SSL

Using UCC certificates does have some drawbacks. Security is the first that comes to mind. All domain hosts that share the same UCC SSL certificate also share the same private decryption key. A hacker gains the ability to decrypt all encrypted messages that go to and from all servers if he manages to compromise just one of them and obtains the decryption key.

What if the UCC SSL certificate gets revoked? All domains that use the certificate will cease to function properly. Until you fix the UCC certificate or get individual SSL certificates for each domain, you may have to put your website on down time.