SSL / TLS Certificate types: Domain Validated (DV SSL) vs Organization Validated (OV SSL) vs Extended Validation (EV SSL)

Question

What are the different types of paid SSL certificates that you can purchase within cPanel?

Answer

The cPanel interface offers three main types of certificates. The server administrator can enable and sell the paid versions of these certificates via the Market Provider Manager interface in WHM (documentation link provided below), as well as adjust pricing and other details.

cPanel Docs - Market Provider Manager

Domain Validated (DV SSL)

Domain-validated certificates are the most basic type of certificate and only require that the certificate applicant prove ownership of the domain. Ownership is typically proven by creating a file on your web server or by creating a DNS record on the authoritative DNS server for your domain that meets the specific requirements of the certificate authority. The certificate authority will then check for the existence of the file or DNS record to verify that you own the domain and can make changes to it. If purchased, these certificates are the least expensive.

Organization Validated (OV SSL)

Organization-validated certificates require additional vetting of the organization applying for the certificate. The certificate provider will often verify that the organization legally exists and verify the company's phone number, among other things. This can give visitors a higher level of confidence that they are working with the authentic organization that the website claims to represent.

Extended Validation (EV SSL)

On top of the checks done in DV and OV certificates, EV certificates require a deeper level of verification of the applicant organization. With this high level of verification comes a much higher level of trust that the certificate provider can award, which can mean that the display of your certificate may be more prominent in some browsers. For example, your organization's name may be displayed prominently next to the URL in some browsers. Due to the additional work involved in the extended validation and the added trust, these certificates are the most expensive to obtain.

Please note that EV SSL Certificates do not support wildcards.