What is DigiCert?

DigiCert is a commercial certificate authority known for the higher-assurance end of the market: organisation-validated and extended-validation certificates, plus certificate-management platforms for large deployments. It grew substantially in 2017 when it acquired Symantec’s certificate business, which had itself absorbed VeriSign and Thawte, so a number of long-established roots now sit under DigiCert.

That history matters when you read a chain, because certificates issued under the old Symantec roots were distrusted by browsers on a schedule in 2018 after a series of mis-issuance findings, and DigiCert’s job after the acquisition was to move customers onto trusted roots. Today DigiCert operates its own well-regarded roots, and its certificates are trusted across the major stores, but the episode is a reminder that a certificate authority’s standing with the root programs is something an operator inherits.

As a commercial authority, DigiCert’s value is in validation, management, and support rather than price. It is common in enterprises that need organisation or extended validation, that manage large numbers of certificates through an API and dashboard, or that want warranties and formal support. A plain domain-validated certificate is not where it competes.

For choosing, the logic is the same as with any commercial authority. If a policy requires verified organisation identity in the certificate, or you need lifecycle management at scale, DigiCert is a common fit. If you need free, automated domain-validated certificates, a free authority is simpler. In every case the certificate must be served with its full chain, and its expiry watched from outside, because a certificate authority’s reputation does not renew your certificate for you — a lapsed DigiCert certificate blocks visitors exactly as an expired free one does, and the outage looks identical to everyone hitting the site.