Bluehost and Network Solutions move their SSL certificates to DigiCert

Newfold Digital, the company behind Bluehost, HostGator and Network Solutions, announced on September 10, 2026 that DigiCert will now issue the SSL/TLS certificates it sells. The partnership covers the brands in its Network Solutions Group and Bluehost Group. Newfold says it serves about 6 million customers.

What changed

DigiCert takes over certificate issuance and fulfillment for these brands. From now on, new certificate purchases, renewals and reissues go through DigiCert. The release names the certificate types that stay on sale:

• domain validation (DV)
• organization validation (OV)
• extended validation (EV)
• wildcard
• multi-domain

Certificates already installed keep working as normal until they are renewed or reissued. The release gives no date by which every brand will have switched and says nothing about price changes.

Why now

Newfold links the move to an industry-wide change: the maximum life of a public SSL certificate is shrinking from 398 days to 47 days by 2029. Shorter certificates must be renewed and reinstalled far more often, and Newfold says DigiCert’s platform is built to handle shorter certificate lifecycles at scale. The release does not say how renewals will be automated for customers.

Who is affected

Customers who buy a paid certificate from Bluehost or Network Solutions, or renew one. The release does not mention the free certificates that come with hosting plans, so it does not say whether those change.

What to do

If you pay for a certificate through Bluehost or Network Solutions, check its expiry date and watch for renewal emails that name DigiCert. With certificate lifetimes falling toward 47 days, favor hosting where certificates renew and install automatically, so a missed renewal doesn’t take your site’s HTTPS down.