How 47-Day SSL/TLS Certificates Will affect IT Teams Without Automation

August 19, 2025

A Certificate Apocalypse

By March 15 2029 every publicly trusted SSL/TLS certificate will expire in just 47 days, a massive change from today’s typical 398-day lifespan. This shift was mandated by the CA/Browser Forum’s Ballot SC-081v3 and it’s going to reshape digital security and certificate operations.

Despite this major change,

92% of businesses lack any certificate automation setup. An entire workday each month spent manually recertifying, an operational nightmare.

Let’s explore the deadlines and what you can do about it.

When does the 47-Day Rule Kick In?

Below are the lifespan reduction phases:

• March 15, 2026: Max validity will drop from 398 to 200 days. this brings renewals to roughly 2x a year. Validation reuse will also shrink
• March 15, 2027: Certificate lifespan will be cut in half to 100 days. Renewals will be roughly 4x a year.
• March 15, 2029: The final reduction to 47 days will require roughly 8 renewals a year

Why Are These Changes Happening?

1. Security First: Shorter certificate lifespans limit exposure if a cert is stolen or compromised.

2. Automation by Necessity: This push will force organizations to move away from manual tracking to adopt robust automation.

3. Future Proofing: shorter validity means you can adapt to new rotating keys or revoke compromised certs with minimal disruption

The Headache for Businesses without Automation

If you’re amongh the 92% of businesses that don’t have automation set up yet, this can cost you.

• You’ll be tasked to renewl your certs every ~ 6 weeks.
• Manually renewing certificates causes risk of human error, like having your website show security warnings, browsers blocking access, and API’s going dark.
• Even if your renewal takes just an hour, that’s 12 hours a year per certificate.
• For large organizations managing hundreds of certificates, manual processes will simply be impossible.

Automating Certificates is the Future

Get ahead of the curve and start looking into automation with your certificates. Let’s Encrypt pioneered free 90-day certs and full automation via ACME protocol. Now today many providers offer full lifecycle automation for various tech stacks.

Not Sure How to Handle SSL Certificates?

Even with automation options available, most businesses don’t have the expertise or bandwith to implement them correctly. That’s exactly where a web agency becomes invaluable.

• An experienced agency can handle the setup, automation, and ongoing monitoring of your website, removing any burden of having an IT team.
• If renewals fail, agencies bring expertise from multiple hosting platforms and server environments.
• Agencies can ensure that renewals happen seamlessly, preventing “Your connection is not secure” warnings.
• Instead of having to add an IT team or pull stuff from other areas to work cert renewals, your business focuses solely on growth and sales.
• Agencies stay ahead of the curve during industry changes, ensuring your site is future-ready.

What Should I Do Now?

1. make an audit of your websites, certificate types, and expiry dates.
2. Look into automation tools
3. Consider a web agency partner
4. set up testing environments
5. train your staff on certificate renewals
6. plan your transition period

By 2029, the SSL/TLS certificates that onces lasted a year will drop to just 47 days. That means you will need to renew your certificate roughly 8 times a year. If you haven’t started the automation process, you need to do it now. Your staff and website will thank you for keeping your website’s HTTPS alive!

Your opportunity now is to get ahead of the curve, embrace the automation process and prevent future outages. And if you don’t have the expertise internally? Partnering with a web agency means you’ll never need to lose sleep over SSL/TLS renewals again.

Embrace the changes. It’s time to automate your certs, or let someone automate it for you.