RapidSSL Wildcard

The RapidSSL Wildcard certificate is a Domain Validated (DV) SSL product issued under DigiCert's root, covering a root domain plus an unlimited number of first-level subdomains under a single purchase. It confirms domain control only, without checking company registration or legal identity. It suits domain owners who need SSL for subdomains consolidated under one low-cost certificate, without paying for organisation-level validation they don't need.

What Does RapidSSL Wildcard Cover?

A RapidSSL Wildcard certificate secures the root domain named on it and every first-level subdomain beneath it, so mail.example.com, shop.example.com, and blog.example.com are all covered by one purchase, including subdomains added after issuance with no need to reissue. It protects data in transit between server and browser only — it does not scan site code for malware or vulnerabilities, and it makes no assessment of the site's content or reputation. Coverage has specific limits:

• A second-level subdomain such as test.shop.example.com falls outside the wildcard scope and needs its own certificate.
• Unrelated domains are not covered under the same certificate.
• No organisation or company name is displayed in the browser, since DV validation confirms domain control only.

Who Needs RapidSSL Wildcard?

This certificate fits a personal or small business site running a webmail portal on a subdomain, a developer managing several staging and test subdomains under one project domain, a blog with a shop subdomain added later, or an agency ordering low-cost Wildcard certificates across multiple client domains where budget matters more than the specific CA brand shown in browser details. It also suits a hosting reseller bundling Wildcard SSL into shared hosting packages at scale, and a business consolidating several existing single-domain certificates onto subdomains of one root domain to reduce the number of separate renewals to track. It is not the right fit for a single domain with no subdomains, where a standard non-Wildcard certificate is cheaper, or for a site needing visible company verification, which requires OV or EV validation instead.

Key Features of RapidSSL Wildcard

• Validation type: DV only, confirmed via DNS record, HTTP file, or email to a domain-listed address.
• Encryption: 2048-bit RSA keys, SHA-256 signature algorithm.
• Issuance: typically within minutes after DNS or file validation clears.
• Coverage: root domain plus unlimited first-level subdomains, one level deep only.
• Reissue: unlimited during the validity period, at no extra charge.
• Warranty: included, amount fixed by DigiCert's certificate terms.
• Browser support: recognised across all current major browsers, with no client-side root installation required, since DigiCert's root has long-standing default trust in browser and OS certificate stores.

RapidSSL Wildcard does not offer ECC key generation on this line — only RSA — and does not include a Site Seal by default, keeping the product positioned at the budget end of the Wildcard category.

How to Get RapidSSL Wildcard: 3 Steps

1. Generate a CSR (Certificate Signing Request) for the root domain with an asterisk prefix (e.g. *.example.com).
2. Submit the CSR and complete DNS, file, or email validation to confirm control of the root domain.
3. Download the certificate and intermediate files once issued, and install them on each server or subdomain that needs coverage.

To buy RapidSSL Wildcard, select the Wildcard option in the order form rather than the single-domain RapidSSL listing, and compare validity periods and reissue terms against other DV RapidSSL Wildcard products before confirming the order. As with any DV certificate, the domain can change hosting provider or server without invalidating the certificate, since validation is tied to domain control rather than a specific hosting account — only the private key and installation files need to move with the migration.