TLS 1.3 and OCSP Stapling - Two Ways to Make HTTPS Sites Faster
Posted: Thu Feb 20, 2025 3:45 am
The trend of switching to encrypted browsing via HTTPS has been one of the most notable developments on the Internet in recent years. With free SSL certificates from Let's Encrypt and Google openly promoting HTTPS over the more common but less secure HTTP, more and more sites have started using SSL certificates.
At SiteGround, we are happy to announce two recent developments in this area: TLS 1.3 and OCSP Stapling, which will make HTTPS sites even faster, are now available on all our servers. Read on to find out how people using SSL will benefit from these innovations.
What is TLS 1.3?
The Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol is the successor to the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol and is used by all sites that have an SSL certificate. For the record, I should say that the more mexico mobile database correct name for these certificates would still be “TLS certificates”, but SSL has proven to be such a popular abbreviation that it has stuck, even after the original SSL protocol has been discontinued. The TLS protocol provides secure communication between browsers and servers, and the connection itself is encrypted using the TLS handshake.
The TLS protocol has been without a significant update for a long time, which is why version 1.3 is very welcome news in our industry. It is important to note that there are two main points in this update that will improve the web as a whole:
A faster handshake
Performance is important, and with the growing percentage of encrypted sites, web encryption needs to be as fast as possible. TLS 1.3 introduces improvements to the handshake, the secret code that enables a secure connection between a website and a browser. These improvements increase the speed of establishing encrypted connections.
Improved security
TLS 1.3 removes obsolete and vulnerable features from TLS 1.2, including SHA-1, RC4, DES, 3DES, AES-CBC, MD5, and more.
How to enable and use TLS 1.3
To use TLS 1.3 you don’t have to do anything except wait for browsers to start supporting it. All sites hosted on SiteGround are enabled with TLS 1.3, so no matter what browser your site is accessing from and whether it uses TLS 1.3 or not, you’ll know that your site is ready. As soon as major browsers release an update to support TLS 1.3, they will immediately start working for encrypted sites without any issues.
At SiteGround, we are happy to announce two recent developments in this area: TLS 1.3 and OCSP Stapling, which will make HTTPS sites even faster, are now available on all our servers. Read on to find out how people using SSL will benefit from these innovations.
What is TLS 1.3?
The Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol is the successor to the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol and is used by all sites that have an SSL certificate. For the record, I should say that the more mexico mobile database correct name for these certificates would still be “TLS certificates”, but SSL has proven to be such a popular abbreviation that it has stuck, even after the original SSL protocol has been discontinued. The TLS protocol provides secure communication between browsers and servers, and the connection itself is encrypted using the TLS handshake.
The TLS protocol has been without a significant update for a long time, which is why version 1.3 is very welcome news in our industry. It is important to note that there are two main points in this update that will improve the web as a whole:
A faster handshake
Performance is important, and with the growing percentage of encrypted sites, web encryption needs to be as fast as possible. TLS 1.3 introduces improvements to the handshake, the secret code that enables a secure connection between a website and a browser. These improvements increase the speed of establishing encrypted connections.
Improved security
TLS 1.3 removes obsolete and vulnerable features from TLS 1.2, including SHA-1, RC4, DES, 3DES, AES-CBC, MD5, and more.
How to enable and use TLS 1.3
To use TLS 1.3 you don’t have to do anything except wait for browsers to start supporting it. All sites hosted on SiteGround are enabled with TLS 1.3, so no matter what browser your site is accessing from and whether it uses TLS 1.3 or not, you’ll know that your site is ready. As soon as major browsers release an update to support TLS 1.3, they will immediately start working for encrypted sites without any issues.