Paid Memberships Pro requires a valid SSL in order to process the membership checkout on your domain (if you are using an offsite payment gateway – PayPal Express, PayPal Standard or 2Checkout – you do not need an SSL).

Where can I get an SSL (and how much should I pay)?

If you don’t have an SSL, click here for information on how to obtain one.

What is an SSL?

An SSL is a digital “signature” by a trusted certificate authority. It allows visitors verify the identity of a secure site before they provide private information, such as their account password or billing information. It validates the HTTPS protocol, allowing the web browser to communicate private information with your secure website.

What is the SSL Seal Code?

If the SSL has been properly installed on your web server, you can place a “seal” that allows users to verify the security of the connection. Your certificate authority such as GoDaddy or GeoTrust provides a seal that a majority of web browsers already trust. As the website owner, you can include the SSL seal code on the Membership Checkout page so that visitors to your site know that their private information is safe.

Here are links to the top SSL providers used by Paid Memberships Pro members. The page will have a block of JavaScript that you can paste into the the “SSL Seal Code” field on Memberships > Payment Gateway & SSL” page.

alphassl
AlphaSSL
comodossl
Comodo SSL
geotrust_quickssl
GeoTrust QuickSSL Premium

geotrust
GeoTrust True BusinessID (includes EV and Wildcard)

GoDaddy
GoDaddy
norton
Norton Secured Seal (formerly Verisign)

RapidSSL
RapidSSL

ssl_who_is_my_issuerDon’t know who your SSL issuer is?

If you don’t know who your SSL provider is, go to your website and click the “lock” icon in the browser’s URL field. This should give you the name of the issuer.

Other banners and verification images

Depending on your gateway, you may want to include other “powered by” or “verified” type badges, such as a PayPal or Stripe logo. We use Stripe as our payment gateway, so I also recently added a “powered by stripe” image to that page.

Here are some links to verified and banner images for various gateways and third party security providers:

You must embed these badges using a relative URL or the https protocol if you upload them to your site’s media library. If you don’t, you’ll be loading insecure content through an insecure connection (no green padlock!).