10 Years of Let's Encrypt Certificates

[Posted December 10, 2025 by jzb]

Let's Encrypt has published a retrospective that covers the decade since it published its first publicly trusted certificate in September 2015:

In March 2016, we issued our one millionth certificate. Just two years later, in September 2018, we were issuing a million certificates every day. In 2020 we reached a billion total certificates issued and as of late 2025 we're frequently issuing ten million certificates per day. We're now on track to reach a billion active sites, probably sometime in the coming year.

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Thank you Let's Encrypt

Posted Dec 11, 2025 8:15 UTC (Thu) by taladar (subscriber, #68407) [Link] (4 responses)

I want to thank Let's Encrypt for their efforts in not only making the web more secure and finally mostly getting rid of unencrypted websites but also for the countless hours of communication overhead cut when people like me who host websites for other companies had to explain to people how to order a new certificate every year (usually over the phone back then).

Thank you Let's Encrypt

Posted Dec 11, 2025 9:40 UTC (Thu) by rwky (subscriber, #119998) [Link] (1 responses)

Here here!

Thank you Let's Encrypt

Posted Dec 11, 2025 20:09 UTC (Thu) by contrapunctus (subscriber, #177355) [Link]

Just to point out that the expression is, "Hear! Hear!"

Thank you Let's Encrypt

Posted Dec 11, 2025 10:34 UTC (Thu) by Lennie (subscriber, #49641) [Link] (1 responses)

Or sometimes: please click the link in the email you got send.

Looking at Let's Encrypt website, I think 6 days certificates are the shortest now, what a different times we have now.

Thank you Let's Encrypt

Posted Dec 11, 2025 20:24 UTC (Thu) by ssmith32 (subscriber, #72404) [Link]

Oh yeah, that was awesome - essentially, to secure the Internet, do the thing that you should never do to keep your intranet secure - click on links in emails from external parties.