Set up an SSL certificate (HTTPS)

An SSL certificate puts the padlock in your visitors' browsers and is required for logins, payments and good search rankings. It's free on both web hosting and VPS.

On NGP Cloud web hosting

Web hosting plans include free Let's Encrypt SSL.

1. Sign in to your web hosting control panel.
2. Open the SSL section for your domain.
3. Issue the free certificate for yourdomain.com and www.yourdomain.com.
4. Visit https://yourdomain.com to confirm the padlock appears.

Certificates renew automatically.

On a VPS (Nginx + Certbot)

These steps are for Ubuntu/Debian with Nginx already serving your site.

1. Install Certbot:

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx
   

2. Make sure ports 80 and 443 are open:

   sudo ufw allow 'Nginx Full'
   

3. Request the certificate:

   sudo certbot --nginx -d yourdomain.com -d www.yourdomain.com
   

4. Choose to redirect HTTP to HTTPS when asked.

Certbot installs a timer that renews certificates automatically. Test renewal with:

sudo certbot renew --dry-run

Using Cloudflare in front?

Set SSL/TLS mode to Full (strict) once your server has a valid certificate. "Flexible" mode sends traffic to your server unencrypted and can cause redirect loops.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Fix
Challenge failed / unauthorized	DNS doesn't point here yet, or port 80 is blocked.
Too many redirects	Cloudflare is on "Flexible" - switch to "Full (strict)".
Browser says "Not secure" on some pages	The page loads images or scripts over http:// - change them to https://.

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Still stuck? Open a ticket on Discord - run /ticket in any channel, pick a department, and include your Server ID or Invoice ID so we can jump straight in.