Multi-Domain SSL Certificate were introduced to the market in July 2005 and have since gained huge popularity with Enterprises combining all their secure domains into a single certificate.

Web host providers offering shared hosting can, through the use of a Multi Domain SSL Certificate, combine all their shared hosting customers onto a single platform and still offer those customers the ability to offer secure services over SSL.

Multi-Domain SSL Certificate (MDC’s) allow enterprises and web hosts to secure multiple websites by including up to 100 domains within a single certificate. Enterprises can consolidate all their secure domains into a single certificate. For example: secure.yourdomain.com; secure.yourdomain.net; secure.yourdomain.info.

Similarly, your merchant customers with more than one online store can secure all their websites in a shared hosting environment with a single IP address without going to the expense of separate, dedicated servers, e.g. secure.shop1.com; secure.shop2.com; secure.shop3.com. (Apache based web servers)
Web host providers offering shared hosting can, through the use of a Multi – Domain SSL Certificate, combine all their shared hosting customers onto a single platform and still offer those customers the ability to offer secure services over SSL.

Multi-Domain Certificates are the only method to provide the security and assurance of SSL in a shared hosting environment without the risk of name mismatch.