How to Manage AutoSSL on BlueHost

All Bluehost customers have a free shared SSL Certificate available through Let's Encrypt for all assigned and parked domains and subdomains. These should install and activate themselves.

Most of the free SSL Certificates are issued for a period of 90 to 360 days and, therefore need to be renewed each time this period expires. If you get a paid SSL Certificate, then you can get it for 1, 2 or 3 years, and you only have to renew it when it expires.

https://my.bluehost.com/hosting/help/manage-autossl

Enabling Bluehost’s free SSL is quick and easy. By enabling an SSL for your website, your domain will be given the "HTTPS://" prefix, which means your website will be labeled as "secure" in most web browsers. This article will help guide you through enabling or disabling the Free SSL provided by Bluehost.

How to Enable Free SSL for Non-WordPress users

Step 1: Log in to your Bluehost dashboard, and navigate to the SSL Certificate product page.

Step 2: If the Free SSL (AutoSSL) is currently disabled, choose the domain you would like to install to in the upper right-hand drop-down box Install SSL on

Step 3: Click Enable AutoSSL.

Once the Free SSL (AutoSSL) is enabled, you may need to add a redirect to ensure the domain resolves to the HTTPS protocol.

If you click on the padlock icon, you can see the information on your site.

How to Enable Free SSL for WordPress users

Step 1: Log in to your Bluehost dashboard, and navigate to the SSL Certificate product page.

Step 2: If the Free SSL (AutoSSL) is currently disabled, choose the domain you would like to install to in the upper right-hand drop-down box Install SSL on

Step 3: Click Enable AutoSSL.

Step 4: Once the Free SSL (AutoSSL) is enabled, navigate to the Security tab in the My Sites section of your dashboard.

Step 5: Under Security Certificate, ensure that toggle switch is On.

Step 6: Test to make sure your SSL certificate is working by typing in your domain name and navigating to your website. You should see HTTPS:// appear before your domain name and any subsequent pages on your site.

If you still do not see your website as “secure,” you will need to  contact the BH  support team.

As you can see by the above screenshot, my wp blog showed as Not Secure. After a chat session with BH were the Really Simple SSL plugin was installed, the site now shows as secure.

Adding a Redirect in the File Manager

Once the Free SSL (AutoSSL) is enabled, navigate to the File Manager section of your dashboard.

Locate your .htaccess file. The primary .htaccess file is located in your public_html folder. To learn more about accessing this file, please see our .htaccess Tutorial.

Click on the file to open your Code Editor.

Using the Code Editor, add these lines to the beginning of your .htaccess file:

#redirect all http to https and permanently redirect from non-www to www
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.
RewriteRule (.*) https://www.expression-web-tutorials.com/$1 [R=301,L] </IfModule>

Note: Substitute example.com with your domain name.

The above code will redirect all http to https AND redirect all non-www to the www version of your site.

The following code in your .htaccess file handles the auto ssl renew

# sets auto ssl renew
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^expression-web-tutorials\.com$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/\.well-known/acme-challenge/[0-9a-zA-Z_-]+$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/\.well-known/cpanel-dcv/[0-9a-zA-Z_-]+$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/\.well-known/pki-validation/[A-F0-9]{32}\.txt(?:\ Comodo\ DCV)?$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.expression-web-tutorials.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Test to make sure your SSL certificate is working by typing in your domain name and navigating to your website. You should see HTTPS:// appear before your domain name and any subsequent pages on your site.

If you still do not see your website as “secure,” please contact the BlueHost  support team.

If you want to check and see if your site is working as it should for redirects, you can use this tool http://tools.seobook.com/server-header-checker/

Plug in all four versions of you site url

And you should get something like this screenshot as a result. CLick on the thumbnail to see the larger report.