Earlier this year, Let’s Encrypt launched, first with a closed beta and more recently, a public beta.

This is fabulous news for all concerned (except, probably, for the SSL certificate issuers that charge $$).

Not only does Let’s Encrypt let you create an entire certificate from the command line, but it’s totally free. It’s now entirely possible to automate SSL certificate generation, so worrying about renewing your cert and having to sort it out after it’s already expired (who hasn’t been there?) could be a thing of the past.