shouldiuse.io

Categories

VERDICT

Should I use Let's Encrypt?

Free, automated TLS certificates from a nonprofit certificate authority - letsencrypt.org

Worth it. Buy if you run any public website or API and can operate an ACME client — it's free and the de facto default. Skip it if you need EV/OV certificates, vendor support SLAs, or certs for internal-only systems.

Confidence

High. Based on 30+ public sources; many snippets were truncated, so no verbatim user quotes could be extracted.

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Feature depth
  • Support quality
  • Security posture

Pricing

$0/year

Standard

ModelNot disclosed
Monthly feesNot disclosed
HardwareNot disclosed
Free tierYes

Best for

  • Public websites and APIs
  • DevOps and automation-first teams
  • Budget-constrained startups
  • Self-hosters and homelab operators

Not for

  • Enterprises needing EV/OV certificates for compliance or branding
  • Teams that require vendor support contracts or SLAs
  • Non-technical users on managed hosting — your host already handles TLS
  • Internal/private PKI use cases — run your own CA instead

Gotchas - check before you buy

high

Short-lived certs: if renewal automation breaks, your site goes dark without warning.

medium

Per-domain rate limits can block bulk issuance or testing; use the staging environment first.

medium

No paid support — you depend on community forums and docs.

low

Donor-funded nonprofit; US funding debates have raised sustainability questions.

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Certificates are free — $0/year, no hidden fees.
  • Automatic issuance and renewal via the ACME protocol.
  • Trusted by all major browsers.
  • Nonprofit run by ISRG; mission is encrypting the whole web.
  • Huge adoption means abundant docs, guides, and client tooling.

Cons

  • Strict rate limits complicate large-scale or bulk issuance.
  • Doesn't fit every certificate need, e.g. extended validation.
  • Requires comfort with command-line tools and server config.
  • Short certificate lifetimes demand reliable automation.
  • Occasional issuance pauses during incidents.

Sources & method

Analyzed 10/04/2026 - 10 sources - Widely trusted nonprofit CA; isolated incidents disclosed and resolved openly, no evidence of CA-level compromise in sources reviewed.

official x4review x4security x2
  • Reported vulnerability (2020), BBC-reported vulnerability covered by Schneier on Security; scope unclear from available snippets.
  • Weak hashing flagged on intermediate certificate, Community users raised CVE-2004-2761 weak-hash lineage concerns about an intermediate certificate.
  • Issuance halt after cross-signed root incident, Let's Encrypt briefly paused certificate issuance after a cross-signed root certificate incident and later resumed.

Key stats

  • Value for money: 5/5

    Rating

  • $0/year

    Starting price

  • 10

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 5/5. Free forever, nonprofit-funded
  • Ease of use: 4/5. ACME automation; still CLI-centric
  • Feature depth: 3/5. Guess: DV-only certs; rate-limited issuance
  • Support quality: 3/5. Community forums only; no paid support
  • Security posture: 4/5. Trusted CA; rare incidents, transparent handling
  • $0/year Starting price Domain-validated certificates
  • Yes Free tier All certificates, no trial
  • 2015 Launched Marked 10 years of issuance in Dec 2025
  • All major browsers Browser trust Since its 2015 rollout

Pricing

Standard

$0/year

  • Domain-validated certificates
  • Automated issuance via ACME clients
  • No contracts or upsells

Security

Widely trusted nonprofit CA; isolated incidents disclosed and resolved openly, no evidence of CA-level compromise in sources reviewed.

  • Reported vulnerability (2020)BBC-reported vulnerability covered by Schneier on Security; scope unclear from available snippets.⁶
  • Weak hashing flagged on intermediate certificateCommunity users raised CVE-2004-2761 weak-hash lineage concerns about an intermediate certificate.
  • Issuance halt after cross-signed root incidentLet's Encrypt briefly paused certificate issuance after a cross-signed root certificate incident and later resumed.⁷

What users say

Sysadmins and developers on Reddit largely call Let's Encrypt good enough for production, praising cost and automation while flagging rate limits and renewal discipline.

Alternatives

Compare Let's Encrypt with each alternative.

  • GoDaddy SSL

    Paid certificates with phone support for non-technical buyers.

Full analysis

Based on 30+ public sources; many snippets were truncated, so no verbatim user quotes could be extracted.

Free, automated TLS for everyone. Great for public sites and APIs; wrong fit if you need EV/OV, support SLAs, or private PKI.

Methodology

Based on 30+ public sources; many snippets were truncated, so no verbatim user quotes could be extracted.

Sources

  1. Let's Encrypt Reviews — Trustpilottrustpilot.com
    review
  2. Is Let's Encrypt good enough? — r/webdevreddit.com
    review
  3. Rate Limits — Let's Encryptletsencrypt.org
    official
  4. Getting Started — Let's Encryptletsencrypt.org
    official
  5. Let's Encrypt — Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
    official
  6. Let's Encrypt Vulnerability — Schneier on Securityschneier.com
    security
  7. Let's Encrypt Halts Certificate Issuance After Cross-Signed Root Incidentcybersecuritynews.com
    security
  8. Using Free Let's Encrypt SSL Certificates in 2025blog.miguelgrinberg.com
    review
  9. Let's Encrypt: review, pricing and rankings — Listerlister.ai
    review
  10. 10 Years of Let's Encrypt Certificatesletsencrypt.org
    official

Rate this review

Anonymous. You can change your vote.

Loading votes…

Comments

One queue. No nested comments. Give a display name first. Limit: 200 words per comment and 7 comments per day. You can edit or delete yours.

Save a name to write a comment.

0 / 200 words

No comments yet.