What is an intermediate certificate?

Intermediate certificates are used as a stand-in for our root certificate. We use intermediate certificates as a proxy because we must keep our root certificate behind numerous layers of security, ensuring its keys are absolutely inaccessible.

However, because the root certificate itself signed the intermediate certificate, the intermediate certificate can be used to sign the SSLs our customers install and maintain the "Chain of Trust."

After your SSL certificate is issued, you will receive an email with a link to download your signed certificate and our intermediate certificates.

How you install the certificates depends on the server software you use. In most cases, you can download and install an intermediate certificate bundle. However, for some server types you must download and install the two intermediate certificates individually. Please refer to the Install SSL certificates for the specific process you should follow.

All of our intermediate certificates and certificate bundles are also available from the repository.

Note: If you don't install the intermediate certificates with your issued SSL certificate, the trusted-chain certificate might not be established. This means that when visitors attempt to access your site, they might receive a "Security Alert" error indicating "The security certificate was issued by a company you have not chosen to trust…" Faced with such a warning, potential customers will most likely take their business elsewhere.