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August 7, 2014 Comments closed

An SSL Reseller Program vs. Buying SSL Certificate Direct – Which is Better?

in ssl certificates

While it may be appealing for a company to partner with a large Certification Authority directly, becoming a Symantec SSL reseller or a Comodo SSL reseller certainly has its drawbacks. The first and most obvious one is pricing. Unless you’re already an established company with regards to SSL, with a proven track record of booming sales, there’s a good chance you won’t get nearly as good of pricing from a direct vendor as you would by partnering with a proven value-added reseller.

That’s because an existing partner of Symantec or Comodo, for example, has probably already demonstrated a high level of competency with marketing and selling SSL certificates. Therefore, their buy rates are likely far lower than anything you will receive from a Certification Authority (CA) at first, so you will be at a significant disadvantage starting out.

At this point, it may be helpful to drill down exactly what a value-added reseller (VAR) actually is. These companies are existing partners of Certification Authorities like Symantec and Comodo, and they add value to their customers that they wouldn’t necessarily get by partnering direct. When dealing with large companies, the “little guy” can often fall through the cracks. But this is not the case with most VARs, as these resellers exist to give their customers the level of service they need with regards to a niche product like SSL.

The SSL Store™ is one shining example of a VAR that offers many benefits over partnering directly with a Certification Authority. The SSL Store reseller program has been designed and developed to assist web hosting companies of all shapes and sizes, along with other web-based businesses. In addition to better pricing, one of the main benefits to partnering with The SSL Store™ is the fact that they don’t require and contracts or commitment of any kind.

When partnering with a Certification Authority directly, you will more than likely be required to sign a contract for a certain number of years and pay a deposit upfront. This is not the case with The SSL Store™. Their reseller program allows you to purchase and sell SSL at your own pace, without any kind of money up front. That’s right, companies looking to sign up to be a reseller simply need to complete an online form, then they are free to get started selling SSL right away, upon approval from The SSL Store™. All the contract negotiations have been done for you!

So, if you’re a new company or just new to the SSL game, you don’t have to worry about any risk – since you can get started with a free plan. If your company has been in the SSL industry for a while with another provider, no worries! With The SSL Store™, you won’t have to start all over again. They offer a Switch & Match Guarantee, which means that they’ll apply your past two years of SSL purchases to your new reseller account. This could qualify you for even better pricing right away!

Another benefit of partnering with a VAR like The SSL Store™ as opposed to partnering direct with a Certification Authority is the level of service that you will receive. In theory, big companies would have more resources to throw at you and give you the care and attention you need to succeed. The fact of the matter is that big companies are about the bottom line at the end of the day, so smaller or new companies don’t exactly leap to the front of the line with regards to SSL issues, especially since SSL might not even be their primary product.

Since The SSL Store™ is focused on one thing and one thing only, SSL, resellers will be able to get the expertise they need when time is of the utmost importance. Additionally, every reseller of The SSL Store™ is assigned a dedicated account manager to serve as their personal liaison for anything they need. Additionally, The SSL Store™ offers Platinum-level support to their resellers 24/7/365 via phone, live chat, and email.

Also, another benefit of The SSL Store™ being an established, VAR is that they already have an outstanding working relationship with their Certification Authorities – Symantec, Comodo, and Certum. They have spent years demonstrating their value as partners and have contacts and phone numbers that other partners simply don’t have. So, should any problem arise from the vendor-side, The SSL Store™ will be able to get immediate answers for their resellers. But, rather than having to spend years yourself building this kind of partnership with a Certification Authority directly – you get instant access to it as a reseller of The SSL Store™.

You also won’t be hamstrung to just selling one particular brand or product by partnering with a company like The SSL Store™, meaning you will be able to service a much larger breadth of customers. The SSL Store™ is partnered with from Symantec, Thawte, GeoTrust, RapidSSL, Comodo, and Certum – more than 80 products in total. So, customers will be able to find a solution that fits their exact need and you will be able to offer up-sells and cross-sells as well. The SSL Store™ also offers every type of SSL, including domain validated (DV), organization validated (OV), extended validation (EV), wildcard, and multi-domain. Resellers can also utilize code signing certificates and malware scanning solutions as well.

Since The SSL Store™ is a true industry specialist when it comes to SSL, they also have the knowledge and resources necessary to build plugins and other integration tools to make management and provisioning of these certificates as simple as possible. The SSL Store™ offers a diverse range of integration options to their resellers for FREE. Not only do they have the most robust API in the industry, built on REST, they also have a number of plugins for popular hosting and billing automation software like:

Another feature exclusive to The SSL Store™ is AutoInstall SSL™. This revolutionary new plugin takes virtually all of the manual labor out of the SSL installation process. With just a few clicks of the mouse, AutoInstall SSL™ will generate your CSR, verify your domain, download and install your SSL certificate, and verify installation. It’s a true game-changer for the industry, in that it works with all three types of certificates from Symantec, GeoTrust, Thawte, Comodo, and RapidSSL. Currently, AutoInstall SSL™ is available for cPanel, with Plesk and Commandline versions not far behind.

Additionally, since The SSL Store™ is a smaller company, they are much more flexible with regards to customized solutions, special requests, one-time deals, etc. They won’t have to have fifty meetings or go through ten sub-committees to fulfill a request. Just talk to your account manager and more likely than not, what you need to get done will get done. The SSL Store™ also often works directly with their resellers to come up with custom marketing materials, banners, web content, email campaigns, and anything else that will help boost their SSL sales. This is just one of the many reasons why The SSL Store™ is considered a Premium SSL services rather than simply a provider.

So, all things considered, it will more than likely be much more beneficial to your business to partner with a VAR like The SSL Store™ rather than partnering with a Certification Authority directly. With better pricing, service, and selection – it’s almost a no brainer! Let The SSL Store handle all the contract negotiations, integration solutions, and other boring board-room stuff. You just have to worry about selling!

For more information about what makes The SSL Store™ the best SSL reseller program in the industry, please feel free to visit our website by clicking right here. Through our website, you can sign up for a FREE reseller account in just a matter of minutes, and start reselling SSL right away!