Plesk can both issue free certificates itself and install a certificate you have purchased. Start by deciding which you need — see What is an SSL certificate and why does my website need one? if you are unsure.
A free certificate (recommended for most sites)
For the great majority of websites a free Let's Encrypt certificate is entirely sufficient, and Plesk issues and renews it automatically.
- Open Websites & Domains and select the domain.
- Click SSL/TLS Certificates.
- Choose to install a free Let's Encrypt certificate.
- Select whether to include www and the webmail subdomain, and confirm.
The certificate is issued within a minute or so and renewed automatically before it expires. Nothing further is required.
Installing a purchased certificate
A purchased certificate takes several steps, because the certification authority has to verify that you control the domain.
1. Create a certificate request in Plesk
Open Websites & Domains → the domain → SSL/TLS Certificates and add a new certificate. Fill in the form — domain name, organisation and location details — and submit it.
The certificate then appears in the list. Click it and copy the contents of the CSR field (certificate signing request). Plesk keeps the corresponding private key on the server; it is never sent anywhere, which is why the request has to be generated here rather than elsewhere.
2. Submit the request
In your client area, open the certificate among your services and start the SSL configuration wizard. Paste the CSR you copied into the corresponding field.
3. Pass the domain verification
Choose a verification method:
- By email — a message is sent to an administrative address of the domain, and you confirm by following the link in it.
- By HTTP — create the directories /.well-known/pki-validation in the root of your site and place there a text file with the name and contents specified, then follow the verification link.
Once verification succeeds, the issued certificate appears in your client area.
4. Install the certificate
Copy the contents of the CRT and CA fields from your client area into the corresponding fields of the certificate in Plesk, and upload it.
5. Assign it to the domain
Open the hosting settings of the domain, enable SSL/TLS support in the security section, and select the certificate from the list.
Check the result
Open your site over https:// and confirm that it loads without warnings. For a thorough check, use SSL Labs — pay particular attention to the completeness of the certificate chain, which is the usual thing to go wrong when a certificate is installed manually.
If the browser still shows a warning
Check that the certificate is assigned to the correct domain and that it covers the exact name being opened — a certificate for example.com does not cover www.example.com unless that name was included. If content on the page is still loaded over plain HTTP, the padlock will not appear either: check that links to images, scripts and styles use https.
If you cannot resolve it, open a ticket from your client area with the domain name and we will look at it.
