How DigiCert Subscriptions affect CertCentral Services API integrations
Order validity changes
The order validity will work differently for requests placed via your CertCentral Services API integration once we migrate your CertCentral account to a CertCentral subscription-based account.
Before Subscription:
TLS/SSL, Verified Mark, and Common Mark certificate orders
With Multi-year Plans, you can place 1–3-year orders with a maximum certificate of up to 397 days. With 2- and 3-year orders, you reissue expiring certificates during the order's lifetime at no extra cost.
Secure Email, Code Signing, and Document Signing certificate orders
With these certificates, you can place orders with a maximum length equal to the certificate's validity. You can purchase certificates with a 1-, 2- and 3-year validity.
After migrating to a CertCentral subscription-based account:
TLS/SSL, Verified Mark, and Common Mark certificate orders
With the 12-month subscription model, you can only place an order with a maximum validity equal to the certificate's validity, up to 397 days. The same is true when renewing your Multi-year Plan certificate order.
Once you've activated your subscription, instead of purchasing a 1-, 2-, or 3-year Multi-year plan order, you pay yearly for the assets you want to protect with your digital certificates, such as a website domain (TLS) or an email domain (Mark Certificates).
Secure Email, Code Signing, and Document Signing certificate orders
With the 12-month subscription model, you can place orders with a maximum validity equal to the certificate's validity, up to 3-year certificate validity
Once you've activated your subscription, instead of purchasing a 1-, 2-, or 3-year certificate, you pay yearly for the assets you want to protect with your digital certificates, such as an employee's email account (S/MIME) or an organization that publishes software (code signing).
Payment method changes
The payment methods will work differently for requests placed via your CertCentral Services API integrations once we migrate your CertCentral account to a CertCentral subscription-based account.
Before Subscription
When placing a certificate order via your CertCentral API integration, you can pay for it using your account balance, a saved credit card, or a new credit card.
After migrating to a CertCentral subscription-based account
Once migrated, you must activate your DigiCert subscription by making a purchase in your CertCentral account. You can no longer make purchases via the API. Remember, certificate orders placed via your API integration can only be issued if the product and the assets it protects are included in your subscription. See our CertCentral subscription documentation.
Without an active subscription
The payment method is ignored, and the certificate cannot be issued until the assets you want to protect, such as website domain (TLS) and employee's email account (S/MIME), are added to your 12-month subscription.
With an active subscription
The payment method is ignored. Instead, you make payments via your subscription. When your subscription is up for renewal at the end of 12 months, you renew all active licenses in the pool together at their total annual price, and charges are automatically applied as follows:
Account balance: The remaining funds in your account balance are used first, but you cannot add more funds to it.
Saved credit card: Once the account balance is depleted, payments are charged to the saved credit card in your account.
New credit card: You can add a new credit card to your account. However, you cannot split subscription payments between credit cards. Charges are applied only to your account's default credit card.
New error message for assets not covered by your subscription
With CertCentral subscription-based accounts, we ignore the payment method and compare the assets in your certificate request against the assets secured by your subscription. If you add assets not covered by your subscription, we return the error in the table below.
For example, you activate your subscription and secure two wildcard domains with Secure Site OV. Then, you order a Secure Site OV certificate and add two wildcard domains and a domain name: *.example.com, *.example1.com, and example30.com. Your API request will fail and return an error message because you did not first add another domain name to your Secure Site OV subscription.
If you add an asset not covered by your subscription, we return the error below.
Code | Description |
|---|---|
insufficient_subscription | There are insufficient free slots available in your CertCentral subscription to complete this request. Please add additional assets to your subscription and try again. Note: When you create a subscription, you include the assets you want to protect. You cannot request a certificate and add assets to your subscription. |
Pricing changes
Pricing will work differently for orders placed via your CertCentral Services API integrations but will not affect the validity of your certificate order.
Before Subscription
You purchase a certificate and pay for it when DigiCert issues the certificate. For TLS certificates, pricing is determined by the product type, such as a Secure Site certificate, and the number and type of domains you are securing, such as a fully qualified domain name and a wildcard domain.
After migrating to a CertCentral subscription-based account
Pricing is based on the time remaining in your subscription and not on certificate validity.
Here's how it works:
With each new subscription period, you are automatically charged the total price for all the assets included in your subscription.
If you add an asset during your 12-month subscription, DigiCert prorates the pricing for the remaining days in your subscription.
When you renew your subscription, you will pay the full 12-month pricing for that asset.
For example, you activate your subscription, securing two assets, such as two wildcard domains, with Secure Site OV. At that time, you are charged 12-month pricing for both assets. Three months later, you secure another wildcard domain with Secure Site OV. At that time, DigiCert charges a prorated 9-month pricing for the wildcard domain based on the remaining time in your subscription. When you renew your subscription at the end of your 12 months, DigiCert automatically charges you 12-month pricing for all three wildcard domains secured with Secure Site OV.
How does this affect my endpoint integrations?
Order endpoints
When using the Orders endpoints, the parameters in the table below will behave differently once we've migrated your account to a CertCentral subscription-based account.
Parameter | CertCentral subscription changes |
|---|---|
payment_method | The payment method is ignored. Instead, you make payments via your subscription. |
order_validity | For order_validity values greater than 397 days, the API will return the following errors:
|
Order info endpoint
When using the Order info endpoint, the following parameters, may return a different response once we've migrated your account to a CertCentral subscription-based account.
Parameter | CertCentral subscription changes |
|---|---|
payment_method | The payment method used for the order will be subscription. |
Reissue certificate endpoint
When using the Reissue certificate endpoint, the following parameters will behave differently once we've migrated your account to a CertCentral subscription-based account.
Parameter | CertCentral subscription changes |
|---|---|
payment_method | The payment method is ignored. Instead, you make payments via your subscription. |
Price estimate endpoint
When using the Price estimate endpoint, the pricing calculations may differ once we've migrated your account to a CertCentral subscription-based account.
Pricing is calculated according to your subscription
Before ordering certificates, you must add the assets you want to protect to your CertCentral subscription. When you get price estimates for assets you've already purchased, the price will be free.
For example, in your subscription, you protect two assets, yourdomain1 and *.yourdomain2, with Basic OV. At that time, you were charged 12-month pricing for both assets. If you get a price estimate for a Basic OV certificate with one domain and one wildcard domain, the price will be free.
Pricing is prorated to the time remaining in your subscription
When you get a price estimate for a new asset that you want to add to your subscription, the price is prorated based on the time remaining in your 12-month subscription.
For example, four months into your current subscription, you want to protect a new asset, *.yourdomain3, with Secure Site OV. At that time, DigiCert charges a prorated 8-month price for the wildcard domain based on the remaining time in your subscription.
You add this asset to your subscription at a prorated price. It is important to understand that when you renew your subscription at the end of your 12 months, DigiCert will automatically charge you a 12-month price for this wildcard domain secured with Secure Site OV.