# Let's Encrypt + Certbot: how AI models rank it, October 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition. Named in 2 judge labels across 1 categories by 2 of 14 models. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/vendors/let-s-encrypt-certbot/

## Standing by category

| Category | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Certificate lifecycle management | 2% | 16 | 0% | 2 |

## What the models said for it

- "My top pick for mid-sized B2B: A combination of Let's Encrypt for internal/non-customer-facing certificates + Sectigo for public-facing, customer-trust certificates" (Claude Haiku 4.5, Certificate management)
- "Free but DIY — no central dashboard, discovery, or governance" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, Certificate management)

## In its own words

What Let's Encrypt + Certbot's own pages state, read 2026-10-06. Stated by the vendor, not checked by the index.

- Positioning: A nonprofit providing free TLS certificates to more than 700M700M websites. (https://letsencrypt.org/)
- For: websites (https://letsencrypt.org/)
- Price stated: free (https://letsencrypt.org/)
- Free plan or trial: free TLS certificates (https://letsencrypt.org/)
- Certifications: Certificate Authority

## What it publishes

Every page letsencrypt.org exposes, read 2026-10-05: 11143 addresses. By kind, pages and the last 90 days:

- webinar or virtual event: 2 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest 2026-07-02
- conference or event: 3 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest 2018-08-29
- report or ebook: 13 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest 2019-03-07
- comparison: 36 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest 2026-04-15
- template or tool: 1 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest 2018-03-25
- glossary or explainer: 209 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest 2019-08-31
- Recent: 2026-07-02 webinar or virtual event: 248603 https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/false-positive-test-api-app-uca-edu-ar-blocked-as-recursive-on-demand-issuance/248603
- Recent: 2026-04-15 comparison: 246630 https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/does-certbot-support-cname-challenge-how-does-cname-validation-work-vs-dns-01/246630
- Recent: 2026-03-26 webinar or virtual event: 246162 https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/certificates-denied-for-subdomain-with-error-domain-name-contains-too-many-subdomain-labels-indicative-of-recursive-on-demand-issuance/246162
- Recent: 2019-08-31 glossary or explainer: 101013 https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/wordpress-multisite-add-on-sites-not-showing-wp/101013
- Recent: 2019-08-31 glossary or explainer: 101015 https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/vesta-subdomain-ssl-not-accept-error-429/101015
- Recent: 2019-08-30 glossary or explainer: 101003 https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/net-err-cert-common-name-invalid/101003

## Record

- Method: https://it-ai-index.com/methodology/
- Raw judge labels and full responses: https://it-ai-index.com/data/
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition, it-ai-index.com.