Aleksey Dorogov freelance software engineer
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How to add SSL certificate to nginx for FREE

Aug 2025 1 min read Aleksey Dorogov

Firstly we have to issue certificates, I use this service to get it done. https://www.sslforfree.com you just enter a domain name for which you need a certificate and then download the archive with certificates. The next step is compiling contents to one bundle.crt and tweak a host for nginx.

  1. Download the archive with certifcates
  2. Extract it
  3. Compile files certificate.crt and ca_bundle.crt to one file, you can use cat command or just open them with text editor and copy/paste under each other with new line.
  4. Upload certificates to server, eg. to folder /etc/nginx/ssl
  5. Add the next to your host file
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com;
    return 301 https://example.com$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443;
    server_name example.com;

    ssl on;
    ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/ssl/bundle.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/ssl/private.key;

    ...
}

Sitting on a version of this problem right now? I'd rather look at it than guess.

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