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February 24, 2026 Comments closed

Reminder: SSL Certificate Validity Is Dropping to 200 Days

in Beyond Hashed Out, Industry Lowdown

Certificate validity periods are getting shorter — is your team ready to keep up with the new demands? Two options for managing shorter certificates…

There’s no way around it — certificate lifespans are getting significantly shorter:

• Validity periods for SSL/TLS certificates will be nearly halved from 398 days to 200 days before March 15, 2026. This move is coming slightly sooner than expected, with some certification authorities (CAs) implementing their shifts to 200-day validity as soon as Feb. 24.
• Validation data reuse periods will also be reduced. Certification authorities will have to re-verify your information significantly more frequently.

Just to be clear, this does NOT mean that you’ll need to purchase twice as many SSL certificates — you’ll just need to reissue (which is free) and reinstall your SSL certificate twice as often.

Here’s what you need to know about the coming changes, and what new SSL certificate automation tools we’re rolling out to help you. 

Let’s hash it out.

A Quick Review of Planned SSL Certificate Validity Reductions

Here’s a quick overview of what the reduced certificate validity phases look like, based on the CA/Browser Forum’s mandated maximum certificate validity periods’ effective dates:

Certificate Lifespans (Max # of Days)	Certificate Renewals/Re-Issues (# Per Year)
398 days (current)	~1
200 days (starting February/March 2026)	~2
100 days (starting March 15, 2027)	~4
47 days (starting March 15, 2029)	~8

If you’d like to dig into more details on why these changes are being made, check out our blog post, Industry to Shift to 47-Day SSL/TLS Certificate Validity by 2029.

As is typical with changes to industry requirements, certificate authorities are implementing slightly more restrictive rules to prevent unexpected issues. Here’s a quick breakdown of how the changes will unfold for DigiCert & Sectigo:

CA	Certificate Validity Changes	Domain Validation Data Reuse Changes	Effective Date
DigiCert	Certificate validity drops to a 199-day maximum	Domain validation (DV) reuse period drops to 199 days	For certificates issued on or after Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026
Sectigo	Certificate validity drops to a 199-day maximum	DCV data reuse drops to 198 days	For certificates issued on or after Thursday, March 12, 2026

Two Options for Managing Shorter Certificates

Essentially, there are two ways to deal with the decreasing certificate lifespans:

1. Reissue + Reinstall Certificates Manually Every Six Months

You can continue purchasing the same SSL/TLS certificates you do now. For example, you can still purchase one- and three-year coverage for each certificate. However, you’ll have to manually reissue and reinstall each certificate (at no additional cost) every 199 days (~six months).

So, what’s this process look like? Let’s re-hash them:

• Generating and submitting a certificate signing request (CSR)
• Completing the domain- and/or organization validation process(es)
• Retrieving the SSL/TLS certificate
• Installing the SSL/TLS certificate
• Renewing the certificate before it expires

If you choose this manual approach, ensure your reissuance notifications are enabled. While the inundation of notifications may drive you a bit crazy, it’s still better than having your certificates expire and cause outages.

2. Let SSL Automation Handle It

SSL/TLS certificate automation solutions handle your certificate reissuances, renewals, and installations (and everything in between). You can set up your SSL/TLS certificate once and not worry about it again, even as validity periods continue to decrease over time.

4 Options for SSL Automation

We offer multiple certificate automation solutions that can help you eliminate manual tasks and streamline your SSL lifecycle management, whether you have one certificate or 100:

	AutoInstall SSL® for Linux and Windows	AutoInstall SSL® for Web Hosts	ACME-Enabled SSL Certificates	Certificate Lifecycle Management Platforms
Who It’s For	Website owners using cloud/VPS/ dedicated Linux and Windows servers	Web hosting providers	Website owners who use a variety of environments	Website owners managing complex environments and custom integrations
Compatible Platforms	Linux (Apache & NGINX) and Windows IIS	cPanel, DirectAdmin, Plesk, and WHMCS	cPanel, Kubernetes, Linux, Plesk, Windows IIS, and other major servers	Supports a wide variety of environments
Features	$✓$ Full lifecycle automation $✓$Built-in monitoring & email alerts $✓$One-time installation (auto-renews 28 days before expiration after that) $✓$Intuitive user interface $✓$Easy setup wizard	$✓$ Full lifecycle automation $✓$ Built-in alerts $✓$ Multi-year SSL reissuances $✓$ WYSIWYG interface for your customers	$✓$ End-to-end SSL automation $✓$ Built on the globally trusted ACME protocol $✓$ Fast and easy setup with ACME agents available for most servers	$✓$ Automated certificate discovery, issuance, deployment, renewal, and revocation that eliminates manual management $✓$ Centralized interface for managing certificates $✓$ Advanced management tools & controls
Pricing	Starting at $18.96/year	Available for Partners	Starting at $75/year	Starting at $2,500/year
	Learn More	Learn More	Learn More	Learn More

Be sure to monitor your certificates as well. Installing certificates won’t do you (or your customers) any good if you don’t bother ensuring they’re active and issue-free.

It’s Time for a Little Exercise…

How much does manually managing your SSL/TLS certificates cost your business?

What all of this means is that by March 2029, you’ll have to dedicate a minimum of 2.5 eight-hour workdays every year strictly to reissuing and installing 10 SSL/TLS certificates. And that number is provided you don’t have other compounding factors, such as:

1. having more than 10 certificates to manage, and/or
2. dealing with additional SSL reissuances or revocations throughout the year.

Imagine what you could do with all of that time if your organization had chosen to automate these tedious tasks…

• #Certificate Validity
• #SSL Certificates