SSL/TLS certificate lifecycles are changing, which will affect how frequently your public certificates will be renewed.

In this blog, we’ll explain exactly what the changes are, when they’re happening, and why. As always, if you have any questions, our Support Team is on hand 24/7 to help.

What’s changing?

The days of 'set it and forget it' for a whole year are on their way out. SSL certificates are dropping from a 398 day lifespan to 200 days, so you’ll be handling renewals more regularly. This change will come into effect on 15th March 2026. 

Buying an SSL with us means that a lot of the administrative hassle is taken care of, as we’ll automatically renew your certificate at the end of its cycle. With our paid SSL certificate, you’ll also get 256 bit encryption, as well as a $500,000 warranty which you wouldn’t get with a free certificate.

Over the next 2 years, the lifespan will decrease again, with the following dates currently planned in:

  • Decrease to 100 day lifespan in March 2027
  • Decrease to 47 day lifespan in March 2029

Why is the change happening?

One of the reasons for this change is to increase the security and protection of your site, by making sure you evaluate your certificate more frequently.

If a certificate expires, browsers will warn visitors that their connection isn’t private. The result? They leave – instantly. That’s lost trust, dropped conversions, and a hit to your brand’s reputation. With shorter lifespans, the margin for error shrinks massively. 

Although the shorter lifecycle does decrease the margin for error, it does mean you’ll need to more frequently renew, and therefore need to dedicate the time and budget to do this. This is another reason why paid SSL certificates are a good idea, as the admin overhead for renewing your SSL is then removed.

It’s not just about lost traffic, either – a missed renewal can trigger outages, security breaches, and even expensive compliance fines.

Here’s just a few more reasons why this change is a positive one:

  • If a hacker steals a certificate’s private key today, they could use it for over a year. With shorter lifespans, that "useful" window for criminals slams shut much faster.
  • Technology moves fast. Shorter lifespans mean we can upgrade security standards across the web much quicker, rather than waiting years for old certs to expire.
  • This forces businesses to stop using "shadow IT" (forgotten certificates on old servers) because they'll expire and break before anyone notices, prompting a cleanup.

Further support

If you have any questions about this change, how it affects you, or need any help managing your services, our team is available 24/7 to help. Give us a call on 0333 0142 700 or message us via live chat.