Must I pay money for an SSL certificate in shared hosting?

[Osiris]

@MikeMcQ

Also, acme.sh does not require root and many others do not either. acme.sh github (link here) says " * DOES NOT require root/sudoer access."

Please note that acme.sh defaults to a commercial CA that also offers free certificates called ZeroSSL. You need to perform some things if you want certs from Let's Encrypt.