If you've ever bought website hosting, you've probably seen "SSL certificate included" somewhere in the small print. It's the thing that gives you the little padlock in the browser bar and turns your address into https instead of http.

Not all SSL certificates are the same

There are different types of SSL certificate, and one of them, the Extended Validation (EV) certificate, stopped doing what it was designed to do years ago. EV certificates used to show a green bar in the browser with your company name on it, a visible signal that a business had gone through extra verification. It was a genuine trust signal, and it made sense to pay extra for it.

What changed in 2019

Chrome and Firefox both quietly removed that green bar. An EV certificate now looks exactly the same as a standard one, just a padlock, no special badge, no green anything. The verification still happens behind the scenes, but visitors to your site can't see it or benefit from it in any visible way.

• Standard (DV) certificate: Confirms you control the domain. Free and automatic on most modern hosting.
• EV certificate: Requires proving your business is legally registered. Used to show a green bar, now looks identical to a standard certificate.

What this means for your website

Despite the green bar disappearing, plenty of providers still sell EV certificates as a premium add-on. It's not that anyone's being dishonest about it, it's more that the industry hasn't quite caught up with what browsers changed years ago. It's exactly the kind of thing I check for when I'm setting up or reviewing hosting for a client, since it's easy to end up paying for something that stopped doing anything extra without anyone flagging it.

If you're paying extra for an EV certificate anywhere, it's worth asking whether a standard certificate would do exactly the same job for your visitors, for less money, or for free. A standard SSL certificate is included as standard with every hosting package I offer, since pretty much every website needs one and there's no good reason to charge extra for it.

👉 Not sure what you're actually paying for on your current hosting? Take a look at straightforward, honestly priced hosting with no markup on domains, or get in touch and I'll take a look.