Certify The Web

Overview

Certify The Web is a TLS certificate lifecycle suite for requesting, deploying, renewing, and managing certificates across servers. It is best suited to administrators who want automated certificate handling on Windows, Linux, or macOS, with a path to centralized oversight as their deployment grows. Its mix of unlimited-certificate plans and broad deployment options is compelling, though server caps and certificate authority rate limits still shape the right tier.

Key features

Validation and certificate authorities

ACME support spans Let’s Encrypt, Google Trust Services, ZeroSSL, Actalis, and private or enterprise certificate authorities. Domain validation can use HTTP or DNS challenges, with choices including built-in DNS providers, Certify DNS, acme-dns, manual TXT records, and custom DNS scripts. That flexibility suits varied DNS environments, while the certificate authority’s own rate limits remain in force regardless of license.

Deployment and renewal

Certificate Manager and Management Agent can automate deployment to IIS, Apache, nginx, Tomcat, Exchange, ADFS, RDP, Azure App Service, Azure Key Vault, HashiCorp Vault, and IIS Centralized Certificate Store. PowerShell or Bash scripts, webhooks, SSH/SFTP, and UNC shares extend deployment to other services. Automatic renewal, certificate discovery, and revocation workflows make the suite useful beyond initial issuance, especially for teams maintaining certificates across several types of infrastructure.

Central oversight and security

Management Hub provides a web interface, API, role-based access, managed DNS challenges, and coordination for Certificate Manager and Management Agent instances. Hub and Certify Dashboard aggregate certificate status, expiries, renewal failures, notifications, and renewal history. Hub and Management Agent can also monitor Certbot, acme.sh, win-acme, simple-acme, and Posh-ACME, which helps bring existing clients into a wider operational view.

Credentials are encrypted at rest: Certificate Manager uses Windows DPAPI or .NET key-based encryption, while Hub adds role-based access controls and scoped API authentication. Webprofusion says its security practices align with ISO/IEC 27001 principles, but it is not ISO/IEC 27001 certified. Every license includes email support tickets, and the free evaluation includes helpdesk guidance.

Pricing

The Free evaluation costs nothing, has no feature limitations, and has no time limit. That makes it a substantial way to use the suite without a paid commitment, though its certificate activity remains subject to authority rate limits.

The Certify Certificate Manager cloud managed license costs $4.99 a month, billed per install / month through Microsoft Azure; Hub requires a quantity of 10 or more. Starter costs $59 a year, billed for 1 year, and covers 1 server with unlimited certificates plus Certificate Manager and Management Agent. It is the lowest-cost annual fit for a single server, but offers no multi-server capacity.

Professional costs $149 a year, billed for 1 year, and covers up to 3 servers with unlimited certificates and both Certificate Manager and Management Agent. It suits small multi-server setups. Certify DNS (Standard) costs $60 a year, billed for 1 year, and supplies a hosted acme-dns service with CNAME delegation of ACME DNS challenges; it addresses DNS challenge hosting rather than expanding server coverage.

For larger estates, Power Pro costs $1,199 a year, billed for 2 years, and covers up to 50 servers with unlimited certificates, including Certify Management Hub. Enterprise costs $5,499 a year, billed for 3 years, and raises that coverage to up to 250 servers, also with Hub. These tiers make centralized management part of the package, but commit buyers to longer billing periods and finite server caps.

Platforms

The suite spans Windows, Linux, macOS, web, API, and self-hosted environments. Certificate Manager is aimed at Windows servers or desktops; Management Agent is for headless Linux and macOS systems; Hub centrally administers multiple instances.

Who it's for

Certify The Web fits administrators who need automated TLS issuance and deployment across mixed systems, or organizations that want one place to monitor certificate health across instances and supported third-party clients. The unlimited-certificate allowance is attractive when certificate counts are high, while server-based tiers help buyers match cost to deployment size. It is less suitable when required server capacity exceeds the selected tier or when a certificate authority’s rate limits are too restrictive for the workload.

Pros and cons

• Pro: Unlimited certificates on Starter, Professional, Power Pro, and Enterprise avoid a per-certificate plan ceiling.
• Pro: Built-in deployment tasks plus scripts, webhooks, SSH/SFTP, and UNC shares cover both common services and custom targets.
• Pro: Hub aggregates renewal status and can monitor several third-party ACME clients alongside Certify instances.
• Con: Paid annual tiers cap the number of servers, from 1 on Starter to 250 on Enterprise.
• Con: The largest Hub plans require two- or three-year billing terms, limiting flexibility compared with one-year tiers.
• Con: Licensing cannot override the rate limits set by the certificate authority.

Alternatives

ManageEngine Key Manager Plus is worth considering when managed-key capacity matters more than unlimited TLS certificates: its $59 a month on-premises license covers 25 managed keys, and it also has a 118 USD perpetual option for 25 keys.

Certbot is a natural alternative for readers seeking free, open-source certificate software from the Electronic Frontier Foundation rather than a paid tiered suite. acme.sh is another free option for readers looking for a certificate client across Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Secret Management offers a free plan and may suit readers considering Oracle’s secret-management offering. KeyTalk CKMS has a paid plan starting at €5 a month billed per user per month and may suit readers comparing certificate-management products with per-user pricing.

Entrust Certificate Manager, Keyfactor Platform, and OpenXPKI are also alternatives to consider.

See the Certificate Management Software category for more options.

Verdict

Certify The Web is a strong choice for administrators who need automated TLS certificate lifecycle work across Windows, Linux, or macOS, particularly when broad deployment support and centralized monitoring matter. Its unlimited-certificate annual plans and Hub-based oversight are the main reasons to choose it. Look elsewhere if your server count exceeds the relevant cap, or if the authority rate limits that apply to your workload make this approach impractical.