{"id":513,"date":"2019-09-13T21:23:45","date_gmt":"2019-09-13T21:23:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rapidsslonline.com\/ssl\/?p=513"},"modified":"2019-09-19T08:57:24","modified_gmt":"2019-09-19T08:57:24","slug":"do-i-need-different-ssl-certificate-for-www-non-www-domains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rapidsslonline.com\/ssl\/do-i-need-different-ssl-certificate-for-www-non-www-domains\/","title":{"rendered":"Do I Need Different SSL Certificate for WWW &#038; Non-WWW Domains?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Not sure whether you need a separate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rapidsslonline.com\/ssl-types\/domain-validation-ssl-certificates.aspx\">SSL\ncertificate<\/a> for WWW domains and those without the WWW? The answer is no, you\ndon\u2019t. But, admittedly, this is a confusing topic. That\u2019s largely owing to the\nfact that URL structure is a foreign concept to many people. So, just to\nreiterate, you do <em>not<\/em> need a different SSL certificate for WWW and\nnon-WWW domains. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, let\u2019s talk about why I don\u2019t need an SSL certificate\nfor WWW and without WWW in the domain name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why You Don\u2019t Need Separate SSL Certificate for WWW and Without<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To put it simply, WWW is a subdomain. Let\u2019s start with what\nsubdomains are. In a URL, the subdomain exists directly in front of the fully\nqualified domain name, or FQDN. Subdomains look like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>subdomain.domain.com<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nowadays, we use subdomains a bit differently. WWW is a\nsubdomain from another era. It\u2019s kind of like the plot from the film Encino\nMan, except Brendan Fraser is played by an archaic alias from the prehistoric\ndays of the internet. And there is no Paulie Shore. Which, frankly, is probably\nan improvement, bud-dy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You see, contrary to popular belief, the internet and the\nworldwide web (WWW) are not the same thing. The worldwide web is a subset of\nthe internet. Early on, in the primitive days of the internet \u2014 back in the\n1990s \u2014 it was common to assign a domain name alias to servers for common\nfunction like email (SMTP) or file transfers (FTP), etc. WWW is one of those\naliases \u2014 it denoted website functionality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That\u2019s obviously no longer the case. But, like a persistent malware\ninfection \u2014 WWW is hard to kill. While many websites have dropped the WWW, many\nothers still use it. And lots of websites use both. WWW is probably never going\nto completely go away. So maybe the malware was a poor comparison. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Anyway, certificate authorities (CAs) know how the internet\nis still split between WWW and non-WWW iterations, which means a lot of their\ncustomers need their SSL certificates to cover both. And they do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When you create the certificate signing request (CSR) for your SSL certificate, simply list the other version of your site, either the WWW or non-WWW, in the <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@chamilad\/subject-alternative-names-in-ssl-certificates-1bfc4f747b00\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Subject Alternative Name (SAN) field (opens in a new tab)\">Subject Alternative Name (SAN) field<\/a> \u2014 whichever version you didn\u2019t use in the FQDN fields. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some CAs will even issue the certificate for <em>both<\/em>\nversions if you don\u2019t list them in the CSR. But it\u2019s best not to take any\nchances and list them anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And if your CA won\u2019t issue you a certificate that covers both \u2014 call us. We know some CAs who will, and we guarantee they\u2019ll be less expensive than what you\u2019re paying for now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"graysection\"><h2>Learn About the Different Types of SSL Certificates<\/h2>\n<p>There&#8217;s a lot to know about SSL certificates and their validation levels. We&#8217;ve got you covered.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link floatnone\" style=\"text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rapidsslonline.com\/ssl-types.aspx\">Learn More About the Types of SSL Certificates<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Not sure whether you need a separate SSL certificate for WWW domains and those without the WWW? The answer is no, you don\u2019t. But, admittedly, this is a confusing topic.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-wpr-button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rapidsslonline.com\/ssl\/do-i-need-different-ssl-certificate-for-www-non-www-domains\/\" class=\"btn btn-green\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n<div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[38],"class_list":["post-513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-ssl-advanced","tag-www"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Do I Need Different SSL Certificate for WWW &amp; Non-WWW Domains?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Many people wonder whether a separate SSL certificate is needed for WWW and without. If you&#039;re one of them, you&#039;ve come to the right place. What to know:\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rapidsslonline.com\/ssl\/do-i-need-different-ssl-certificate-for-www-non-www-domains\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Do I Need Different SSL Certificate for WWW &amp; Non-WWW Domains?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Many people wonder whether a separate SSL certificate is needed for WWW and without. If you&#039;re one of them, you&#039;ve come to the right place. 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If you're one of them, you've come to the right place. What to know:","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.rapidsslonline.com\/ssl\/do-i-need-different-ssl-certificate-for-www-non-www-domains\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Do I Need Different SSL Certificate for WWW & Non-WWW Domains?","og_description":"Many people wonder whether a separate SSL certificate is needed for WWW and without. If you're one of them, you've come to the right place. What to know:","og_url":"https:\/\/www.rapidsslonline.com\/ssl\/do-i-need-different-ssl-certificate-for-www-non-www-domains\/","og_site_name":"SSL\/TLS Certificates","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/rsosslcertificates\/","article_published_time":"2019-09-13T21:23:45+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-09-19T08:57:24+00:00","author":"Casey Crane","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@RSOSSL","twitter_site":"@RSOSSL","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Casey Crane","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.rapidsslonline.com\/ssl\/do-i-need-different-ssl-certificate-for-www-non-www-domains\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rapidsslonline.com\/ssl\/do-i-need-different-ssl-certificate-for-www-non-www-domains\/"},"author":{"name":"Casey Crane","@id":"https:\/\/www.rapidsslonline.com\/ssl\/#\/schema\/person\/24349032d0b90283d4682ad113e46d4d"},"headline":"Do I Need Different SSL Certificate for WWW &#038; Non-WWW Domains?","datePublished":"2019-09-13T21:23:45+00:00","dateModified":"2019-09-19T08:57:24+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rapidsslonline.com\/ssl\/do-i-need-different-ssl-certificate-for-www-non-www-domains\/"},"wordCount":505,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rapidsslonline.com\/ssl\/#organization"},"keywords":["WWW"],"articleSection":["SSL Advanced"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.rapidsslonline.com\/ssl\/do-i-need-different-ssl-certificate-for-www-non-www-domains\/","url":"https:\/\/www.rapidsslonline.com\/ssl\/do-i-need-different-ssl-certificate-for-www-non-www-domains\/","name":"Do I Need Different SSL Certificate for WWW & Non-WWW Domains?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rapidsslonline.com\/ssl\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-09-13T21:23:45+00:00","dateModified":"2019-09-19T08:57:24+00:00","description":"Many people wonder whether a separate SSL certificate is needed for WWW and without. 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