Install Fast and Free SSL and HTTPS in cPanel with Let’s Encrypt

Let’s Encrypt is a trusted, open source certificate authority that offers free SSL certificates for as many domains as you want – and now there are easy ways to integrate it with cPanel for one-click, automated certificate installation that takes mere seconds to complete.

Installing an SSL certificate with Let’s Encrypt is already fast, but if you own a hosting business, you’re a developer who manages clients’ sites, or you want an even faster solution, then there are three Let’s Encrypt plugins you can integrate into cPanel, including an official plugin by cPanel.

In this post, I’ll cover how to install each of the three Let’s Encrypt plugins for cPanel and how you can use them to install and renew free certificates in a few seconds.

Server Requirements

To run any of the three plugins for cPanel there are a few prerequisites:

You need cPanel installed with a valid license

Root and SSH access to your server

The basic requirements for using Let’s Encrypt:

Unix-type OSes that include Python 2.6 or 2.7

For the official cPanel plugin:

cPanel and WHM versions 58.0.17 or above

For the plugin found on GitHub, you need:

A Centos five, six or seven server

A static IP address if you have Centos five

For the Let’s Encrypt for cPanel plugin, you need

i386 or x86_64 CentOS 6 or 7 (5 is not supported)

WHM 11.52 or higher (CloudLinux and LSWS compatible)

Remote access key has been generated (/root/.accesshash)

If you don’t have a remote access key generated but want to use the Let’s Encrypt for cPanel plugin, log into WHM and
go to Clusters > Remote Access Key and click the Generate New Key button.

It may be important to note that the Let’s Encrypt for cPanel plugin is the only premium option on the list. It’s $30 and there’s a free trial available. If you would like to try it out before purchasing a license, you can install it with a trial license automatically.

If you decide to purchase a premium license after all, you can replace the trial licensee on your server with the premium license file. The details on this can be found on the Let’s Encrypt for cPanel Installation page.

Once you have all the server requirements for the plugin you want to use, you can go ahead and install it. Feel free to skip ahead to the one you want to install:

Let’s Encrypt for cPanel Installation

Free Let’s Encrypt cPanel GitHub Plugin

Free Official cPanel Plugin

1. Let’s Encrypt for cPanel Installation

Installing the cPanel Plugin

1) Login to your server via SSH and add the Let’sEncrypt repo using the following command:

# cd /etc/yum.repos.d/ && wget https://letsencrypt-for-cpanel.com/static/letsencrypt.repo

2) Install the plugin for cPanel:

# yum -y install letsencrypt-cpanel

3) Now you can log in to your cPanel account and install your first SSL certificate.

Installing certificateLogin to your cPanel account and click on “Lets Encrypt for cPanel” button for accessing the domains to install the certificate.