We noticed that GeoTrust offers a standard certificate with Enhanced Verification (EV) possibilities. We felt that this was a great solution for customers, as it promises the following benefits:

An affordable price for EV purposes ($299) in comparison to some of the competitors who charged more for Enhanced Validation.
Unlimited server licenses per certificate.
Alternate Name support for your website (www.site.com vs. site.com)
Fast turnaround time for issuance, ranging from instantaneously to up to several business days (depending upon the certificate).

We also liked the GeoTrust SSL certificate management console. This is a new feature that was recently rolled out. We found that this gave the customer the ability to watch the status of their certificate until issuance, get access to support, and much more. Probably the most robust feature of the management console is the ability to see when your subscription runs out, as it is easy to forget on what exact date your certificate might expire.

Safety and Security

We saw that GeoTrust was a little bit more affordable than some of the competition that we reviewed. Ultimately, we were afraid that there might be a shortfall in security somewhere. In fact, we felt like GeoTrust gives customers the most bang for their buck, in terms of security. The highest certificate liability offered by GeoTrust is $1.5 million. This is more than enough financial security if something happens to your website.

Trust Logo

We also liked that the GeoTrust website has a visual and explanation for its security trust seal. This is important for customers. We have found that trust logos are an important component of e-commerce, helping:

Decrease bounced visitors for a website.
Increased conversion.
Giving customers the trust that they need to conduct business on a website.

The trust seal with GeoTrust gives detailed information the security about a website:

The expiration for the SSL certificate.
Customers can click the seal to verify the domain.
A date and time stamp, as well as organizational stamp.

Number of Industries Served

One of the things that we liked about GeoTrust was the number of industries served. We saw that their solutions are used by the following industries:

Education, for FERPA compliance.
Healthcare, to ensure HIPAA compliance.
Banking and Finance.
Government.

An Affordable Option for Small Businesses

We found that QuickSSL Premium was a great fit for small businesses. This is much more affordable than the TrueBusinessID SSL certificate. Here is what we found out about it:

There is safe and fast domain authentication for your website.
Up to 256-bit SSL encryption.
A GeoTrust stamp.
$500,000 warranty to protect your site.

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The Bad

Different validation times for different products
High price for wildcard certificate

Also, we wanted to know more about why some certificates could be validated instantly and others took several business days.

Different Validation Times for Different Products

The Quick SSL product can be issued and verified within minutes. However, the TrueBusinessID Enhanced Validation had an issuance time within 1-10 business days. With some of the other competitors, we found that issuance time was consistent upon all products.

High Price for Wildcard Certificate

We had some issues with the wildcard certificate pricing. With their wildcard certificate, you can secure an unlimited number of subdomains on your website. However, we felt that the price for a three-year wildcard SSL certificate was quite high. The GeoTrust certificate cost $1,248 for a three-year certificate. We found that a competing three-year wildcard was only $404.95.

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The Bottom Line

We found that GeoTrust is a little bit on the expensive side, but we do recommend them. They do have a high level of legitimacy in the SSL industry and also offer a high level of warranty coverage for your website, up to $1.5 million. The resources page could use a little bit more support, but overall, we were able to find the prices and features that we were looking for rather quickly.

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London1midnight Coalville, UT

DO NOT PURCHASE FROM THIS COMPANY!! I have been trying to get my SSL issue worked out for 2 plus months- the tech support team couldn't figure out (after someone finally replied) and after troubleshooting was promised a prorated refund (since the product is useless)- and now they won't give the refund. I followed all their instructions including filling out their forms etc and now they pretend like they have no idea what I'm talking about. If you have BlueHost they're giving the SSL certs for free. Save yourself the money and headache!

8 years ago

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Alex Mason Los Angeles, CA

Worst customer service ever, unable to verify simple infos. Inefficient government agency style managed business. Avoid if you really serious about business and i recently heard security leaves a lot to desire. Pay a little more but get better quality.

11 years ago

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Joe Cheon Walnut, CA

Paid $299 for one year SSL certificate and they screwed our corporate name. I called and emailed numerous times, it still hasn't changed. Worst SSL provider ever!

8 years ago

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Kaveh Hendi

Customer support are really slow. They are really worse than what you think. They don't have any procedure to verify your business.

6 years ago

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Barry Crouse Tacoma, WA

My experience with these certificates is they do not work very well with domain validation despite having trademarks and copyrights on the websites.

9 years ago

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Joakim Iversen

GeoTrust is bad for business. It has been a disaster in terms of costs, time loss and frustration. Worst customer service ever.

9 years ago