# Let's Encrypt: how AI models rank it, November 2026

Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. Named in 4 judge labels across 1 category by 4 of 14 models. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/let-s-encrypt

## Standing by category

| Category | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [Certificate lifecycle management](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/identity/certificate-lifecycle-management/index.md) | 2% | 11 | 25% | 4 |

## What the models said for it

- "Start with Let's Encrypt + Certbot or similar ACME client" (Claude Haiku 4.5, Certificate management)
- "Small, budget-conscious teams | Completely free, widely trusted | Requires more operational overhead" (GLM 4.7 FlashX, Certificate management)

## And against it

- "No management UI; Requires heavy scripting." (Qwen 3.7 Flash, Certificate management)

## By model

| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Warning | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Grok 4.20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mistral Small | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Kimi K2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |

## Sources returned with these answers

The sites and pages cited by the answers that named Let's Encrypt, from 21 of the 25 answers that named it (only the models that return a source list).

### Domains cited

- akeyless.io: 19
- g2.com: 19
- gane.ai/index: 14
- appviewx.com: 8
- reddit.com: 7
- sectigo.com: 7
- topbusinesssoftware.com: 7
- qcecuring.com: 6
- sourceforge.net: 5
- digicert.com: 4

### Pages cited

- https://akeyless.io/blog/blog-best-certificate-lifecycle-management-software: 18
- https://www.gane.ai/index/it/identity/certificate-lifecycle-management/smb: 14
- https://g2.com/categories/certificate-lifecycle-management-clm/small-business: 12
- https://appviewx.com/blogs/best-certificate-lifecycle-management-software-2026: 7
- https://g2.com/categories/ssl-tls-certificate-tools/small-business: 5
- https://reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/1tqbeq3/certificate_lifecycle_management_vendor_comparison: 5
- https://topbusinesssoftware.com/categories/certificate-lifecycle-management: 5
- https://qcecuring.com/blog/best-clm-platforms-2026: 4

## In its own words

What Let's Encrypt's own pages state, read 2026-10-05. Stated by the vendor, not checked by the index.

- Positioning: a free, automated, and open Certificate Authority (https://letsencrypt.org/)
- For: websites (https://letsencrypt.org/)
- Price stated: free (https://letsencrypt.org/)
- Free plan or trial: free TLS certificates (https://letsencrypt.org/)

## 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://www.gane.ai/index/it/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, November 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/it.