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Updated: 12/09/2025
( 25 minutes reading )
SSL certificates are essential for protecting your website and its visitors by enabling secure, encrypted connections between the user's browsers and their web server. Not only do they safeguard sensitive information like login credentials and credit card details, but they also boost your site's SEO rankings and help build trust with your audience.
In fact, SSL (Secure Socket Layer) is now mandatory for all websites. By encrypting the connection between the server hosting your website and the visitor's browser, they prevent potential "man-in-the-middle" attacks, where hackers attempt to intercept and steal sensitive data. If you want your users to feel confident while browsing your site or making purchases on your online store, installing an SSL certificate is crucial.
Fortunately, installing SSL certificates in Plesk is user-friendly and straightforward. Whether you're using a free Let's Encrypt certificate or uploading one from a third-party provider, Plesk offers a smooth and intuitive installation process.
In this tutorial, we'll walk you through all the available methods for installing SSL certificates in Plesk.
Let's get started!
The first thing you need to do before you start is to make sure you are logged in to your Plesk control panel. To perform that, please enter your IP address, hostname, or domain name inside your web browser's search bar and add ":8443" at the end. It should look something like: "https://yourdomain.com:8443". By doing that, you will be prompted by a login form requesting your username and password.
After logging in with your username and password, Plesk will automatically display the "Websites & Domains" page, which will be your index page from where you can manage everything related to your websites and domains on Plesk.
Pleks offers the option to install either a paid SSL certificate (signed by Sectigo) or a free one issued by Let's Encrypt. We will focus on the free option, as this will be the default choice for the majority of people. Additionally, Pleks allows you to install third-party SSL certificates from other providers, which we will also cover.
Let's Encrypt is a free, automated certificate authority integrated directly into Plesk that offers the highest level of encryption for your domains and ensures that all sensitive information will remain hidden from unwanted eyes!
If you followed our instructions earlier, you should be logged in to the Pleks web hosting control panel and currently located at the "Websites & Domains" index page.
Please open all available tools by clicking the small, downward-pointing arrow at the far left side of the row corresponding to the website for which you want to install an SSL certificate.
Performing this action will display all functionalities you have at your disposal with which you can manage your website.
Since you are aiming to install an SSL certificate, we will assume that the domain name does not have one already. In this case, you will see the following message on the right side of the "SSL/TLS" sign: "No certificate". This is actually a link, so to proceed with the installation, please click on it. Performing this option will display a pop-up window with one additional link labeled "Get an SSL/TLS certificate". Please click on it.
Performing the action above will redirect you to the "SSL/TLS" page, from where we can proceed with the SSL installation.
At the top of the page, you will see а warning, mentioning that your website is not secure and that you should install an SSL certificate. It will provide an option to upload an already purchased certificate. Please ignore this for now, as we will cover this later.
In the middle of the page, you will see the paid certificate options. As we mentioned earlier, we will not really cover this option in this tutorial, as this will not be the first choice for most people.
At the bottom of the page, you will see three additional options "Install a free basic certificate provided by Let's Encrypt", "Upload a certificate you already purchased", "Download or remove existing certificates". Please click on the "Install" button, located under the "Install a free basic certificate provided by Let's Encrypt" option.
Performing the action above will open a side-screen on the left side of the screen, where you will need to select a few requirements before Pleks can install a Let's Encrypt certificate and secure your website. Let's go over them one by one:
Finally, when you have configured all the desired settings for the certificate, please press the "Get it free" blue button at the bottom of the pop-up window.
Once you perform the action above, a brief loading screen will trigger, and after it's done, you will be redirected to a page where you will see a successful installation notification in the top right corner, and a table section populated with all your secured domains. Right above the table, you will see when the certificate will expire (Let's Encrypt certificates are usually valid for 90 days).
Now that you have installed the SSL certificate, you should be able to open your domain without any security warnings in your browser.
If you've purchased an SSL certificate from a third-party provider, you can also install it manually using the Plesk web hosting control panel. To begin installing your third-party SSL certificate, you first need to purchase it. Plesk offers paid SSL certificate options, as we mentioned earlier, and so does HostArmada. If you have purchased an SSL certificate from HostArmada, please contact our support team via ticket or chat so they can guide you further through the process. If you already have an SSL certificate that works for the domain on another server, please download it from the current server or ask your SSL certificate vendor to provide you with the certificate in PEM format.
Once you have the certificate file in PEM format, log in to your Plesk control panel using the method we covered at the beginning of this tutorial. Once you have logged in, please expand the drop-down menu to reveal all the available tools for your domain, and after that, please click on the "Dashboard" tab.
Once you perform the action above, all the available tools under the "Dashboard" tab will be displayed. Please scroll down a bit, and under the "Security" category, you will see the "SSL/TLS Certificates" functionality.
Once you click on the "SSL/TLS Certificates" functionality, you will be redirected to a page we went over earlier in this tutorial. Please scroll down to the very bottom and out of the three available choices, click on the "Upload .pem file" button
Doing that will open a window, allowing you to select the PEM key you should have available from your SSL vendor or previous web hosting provider. Please select the PEM file. After completing this step, a brief loading screen will appear, followed by the certificate installation, and you will receive a notification indicating that the SSL is successfully installed.
Your domain should now be fully accessible via HTTPS in your browser!
A Certificate Signing Request (CSR) is a block of encoded text that the customer generates on their server (or, in this case, in the Plesk web hosting panel) and submits to a Certificate Authority (CA) to request an SSL certificate.
Typically, this is a mandatory action before you can purchase an SSL certificate; thus, we will go over the process below.
Using the same means above, please navigate to the "SSL/TLS Certificates" functionality under the "Dashboard" tab for your selected domain.
Once you are redirected to the "SSL/TLS Certificates" page, please scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the "Manage" button.
Performing the action above will redirect you to the SSL certificates management page. In a table section in the middle, you will see a list of all the available SSL certificates and certificate signing requests on the server. To generate a CSR, please click on the "+ Add SSL/TSL Certificate" button located on the left side, right above the table section in the middle.
After performing the above-mentioned action, Pleks will redirect you to a page where you can not only generate a CSR but also install a third-party SSL certificate if you have the CRT (certificate), KEY (private key), and CABundle (Certificate Authority Bundle) available. These are the three main components of an SSL certificate. The PEM key we discussed earlier essentially combines these three in one file, making it easier and quicker to install the SSL.
Let's go over the information you need to submit before you can generate the CSR.
Once all the required data has been typed in, please click on the "Request" button located at the bottom of the form.
After performing the action above, a brief loading screen will follow, after which you will be redirected to the previous page, where you can see a table section of all the certificates/CSRs on the server. You will notice that the one you just issued will also be conveniently placed inside.
To download the CSR and provide it to your SSL Vendor, please use the green downwards pointing arrow at the far right side of the row, corresponding to the CSR.
This conveniently transitions into our next tutorial section, which is how to download or delete an existing SSL certificate.
In the tutorial section above, we went over the CSR generation process and how you can download it locally once it is generated. You can apply the same method for downloading any other CSRs or SSL certificates. However, if you want to delete them, the process is a little different.
To delete an SSL certificate or a CSR, please use the checkboxes located on the far left side of the table section. Please place a tick inside the checkbox corresponding to the CSR or SSL certificate you would like to delete.
After doing that, please click the "Remove" button located above the table section, approximately in the middle of the screen. You will receive a prompt that will ask for your confirmation.
Please click on the "Yes, remove" red button to finalize the removal process. Performing this action will refresh the page, and the SSL certificate or CSR will no longer be populated inside the table section!
Lastly, we will review a method for verifying that the SSL certificate is properly installed for the domain name. After installing the certificate, please open your domain in a browser using the "https" protocol. You should see a padlock icon in the address bar, indicating a secure connection.
An additional way to verify is using an online tool called an "SSL Checker". Of course, there are many online tools available, but the one that we recommend and frequently use is the SSL Shopper website. It is pretty straightforward to use. Once you land on the link, please type in your domain name in the text field and then click on the "Check SSL" button on the right side.
Performing the action above will trigger a loading screen, after which you will be presented with information about the SSL certificate, its validity, and the Vendor that issued it.
This gives you a complete guarantee that the SSL certificate is now properly installed for your domain name!
Installing an SSL certificate in Plesk is straightforward, whether you're using a free Let's Encrypt certificate or importing one from a third-party provider. With just a few clicks, your website can enjoy the benefits of secure HTTPS connections, boosting both visitor trust and search engine rankings.
By following this tutorial, you'll be fully equipped to manage SSL certificates and keep your domain safe and secure.
Nikola is an accomplished tech-savvy extraordinaire with over six years of experience in the web hosting field. He started as a customer care representative and quickly rose the ranks to become a support supervisor and, eventually - the head of the technical department in HostArmada. His deep understanding of the client's needs, combined with his technical knowledge, makes him the perfect man to create the ideal harmony between client satisfaction and professional problem-solving. You will often find him creating helpful tutorials, articles, and blog posts that help existing customers get around.
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