Costs for AWS SSL certificate vs GoDaddy

Question

We are running an Apache web server on a single AWS Amazon Linux EC2 instance and we want to configure HTTPS on the web server. Either we configure an application load balancer on AWS and configure HTTPS on the ELB, or we purchase an SSL/TLS certificate from GoDaddy and configure it in the web server.

Which option is best for us in terms of long-term costs?

Answer 1

The cost of the Go Daddy SSL ultimately comes down to the configuration such as duration of certificate and whether its single domain, multi domain or using wildcard. You also have the option for a free SSL using certbot if cost is a factor.

Application Load Balancer is not the only service that can use ACM, you can also use a CloudFront distribution in front of a server (or load balancer) and attach your ACM certificate to it.

By using ACM you will no longer have to worry about rotation of the SSL, the renewal when close to expiry or copying it to new resources that you create.

If this is a small personal project I would suggest to go with a free certbot SSL, if its professional or a project you see expanding with additional resources I would suggest using ACM as it will make SSL management across resources easier to maintain.