I use Gate.com for hosting, which evidently isn't on Let's Encrypt's list of "friendlies." While I have a CSR from Let's Encrypt, I have neither the technical skills nor understanding of the process here to obtain an SSL from that point (which I would then send back to Gate).
They are running Linux.
Can anyone assist in the predicament? Thanks.
DW
I think your best option is to contact Gate . com support.
A quick look at their site says this
All Gate.com Managed WordPress plans are packaged with free SSL Certificates, automatically configured to your website and optimized for bulletproof browser-to-server connections.
Actually, those are SHARED certificates, so you lose your domain identity in the URL... have had loooooong talks with them about this...
Every cert has your domain name in it. On some shared systems, yes, there may be domain names in it from other customers. But, unless someone looks very hard they will not even know that. All certs also get logged in the public CT logs so every domain name in a cert is easily seen.
Can you reference the process they require for custom certs? Because you don't "get a CSR" from Let's Encrypt and send it to them. LE uses the ACME standard to issue certs
OK, keep in mind I am a Luddite at this - I got a CSR request code from Gate, which supposedly is what I send to Let's Encrypt to get an SSL certificate? They are more than happy to SELL you a certificate for $149/year via GeoTrust.
Also, am using Wordpress, if that matters
No, that's not how Let's Encrypt works. Perhaps if you send a link to their instructions we will see an option for you.
Have you reviewed the Getting Started page I linked to?
Yes, and while their instructions page screencaps are nice, they don't appear to be current, nor applicable to my account. Again, I will likely have to go back to Gate. Thanks anyway.
Or, find a hosting company that offers a better fit of your requirements.
Indeed
What do you mean by "you lose your domain identity in the URL"? Because a cert that includes domains in addition to yours doesn't affect the URL in the browser at all.
Sorry for my poor wording... if I use their free shared certificate, then "supposedly" the domain name does not appear in the URL bar, but rather whatever Gate's own "text" would be. As I said, they are only too happy to charge me $50 to set it up and $149/year to maintain it, while I use an almost identical Wordpress site on another host with which I have no such issues. I believe I am migrating.
Thanks for the input.
Certificates don't affect the URL in the address bar. Where/how did they say that it would?
The only thing I can think of is that the certificate would contain multiple hostnames in the "SAN" field (as mentioned above). But that is a certificate thing: only if the user would view the contents of the certificate itself, they'd notice that. But barely anyone does that. The cert wouldn't affect the URL.
Alternatively you could use a semi-random ACME client in combination with your CSR (which probably requires you to use the command line), somehow need to validate the ACME challenge using your websites controle panel to add/remove a certain file (or use your DNS providers DNS zone editor) and get a certificate.. And do that every 2-3 months.
I mean, certbot can utilize a provided CSR, but why not just have the ACME client generate the CSR (like usual) to ensure compatibility with Let's Encrypt?
The only place where a cert would have affected (in the past, not today) what appears in the URL bar would be with an EV cert, which (in the past) would show the name and legal jurisdiction of the business that owned it. That's long since been deprecated; at most it might give a green padlock there.
...or the hosting/platform provider is using a subdomain of their own domain name with their own cert rather than the user's "custom" (own) domain name with its own cert. This would indicate that the hosting/platform provider isn't willing to acquire certificates for their clients' domain names (without being paid to do so).
Because maybe the hosting provider has generated the private key and only accepts a cert from the CSR they generated? Maybe they do, but maybe they don't accept a cert/private key combo from their user?
All good points, @Osiris. 
I think my conclusion above your last post is most likely the actual situation here. Doesn't invalidate your points though.
Sounds plausible. Some companies go out of their way to squeeze some extra $$$ out of their customers.
Bingo.
