In short: Sectigo Certificate Manager is Sectigo's cloud platform for certificate lifecycle management. It discovers existing certificates and issues, renews and revokes publicly trusted domain validated TLS certificates automatically using ACME. Through Forever Systems it is licensed per domain name, as standard or wildcard certificates, on monthly or annual terms.
What Sectigo Certificate Manager is
Sectigo Certificate Manager (SCM) is a cloud-based certificate lifecycle management platform. Sectigo describes it as CA-agnostic and designed for the 47-day certificate lifetimes due in 2029. It handles public and private certificates and supports the main automation protocols, including ACME, SCEP and EST.
The version we supply is set up for IT providers managing certificates on behalf of their customers. It focuses on the job that causes the most outages: keeping public TLS certificates on websites, portals, mail services and APIs valid. Your certificates are issued by Sectigo as a publicly trusted CA, renewed automatically before they expire, and tracked on a dashboard so nothing quietly lapses.
There is no on-premises server to run. Automation happens through ACME clients on your servers, or through the integrations built into many web servers, load balancers and hosting control panels.
What is included
| Capability | What it gives you |
|---|---|
| Public DV certificates | Publicly trusted, domain validated TLS certificates from Sectigo |
| Standard and wildcard options | Single-name certificates, or wildcards covering every first-level subdomain |
| Automated issuance and renewal | ACME-based enrolment so certificates renew without manual requests |
| Cloud discovery | Finds certificates already deployed on your public domains, whoever bought them |
| Domain control validation | Validation completed by us on your behalf, using DNS or HTTP methods |
| Manual issuance | For the odd device or appliance that cannot run an ACME client |
| Dashboards and alerts | Certificates expiring in the coming days and weeks, active domains, and validation status |
| Reporting | Which domains are automated and which are still managed by hand, so gaps are visible |
Because we manage your account in a multi-tenant console, our team sees the same expiry warnings you do and acts on them.
Options and how it is licensed
| Option | Covers | Term |
|---|---|---|
| Standard, monthly | One fully qualified domain name | Monthly |
| Standard, annual | One fully qualified domain name | Annual |
| Wildcard, monthly | A domain and its first-level subdomains | Monthly |
| Wildcard, annual | A domain and its first-level subdomains | Annual |
Certificate Manager is licensed for each domain name you put under management, as either a standard or a wildcard. Sectigo's subscription model for service providers charges per domain rather than per certificate, so the renewals and reissues within the term are handled by the platform rather than bought one by one. That matters as maximum certificate lifetimes fall from 200 days (since 15 March 2026) to 100 days in March 2027 and 47 days in March 2029. Your subscription appears on your Forever Systems invoice alongside your other licences.
Monthly terms suit organisations still working out which domains they own; annual terms suit a settled list. Prices depend on the number and mix of names, so ask us for a quote. Our software renewals guide explains how we line up terms with your other subscriptions.
Requirements and deployment
Automation uses the standard ACME protocol (RFC 8555), so it works with widely used clients such as Certbot, acme.sh and win-acme, and with web servers and proxies that have ACME support built in. Domain control is proved with either an HTTP file (http-01) or a DNS record (dns-01); wildcards need DNS validation.
To automate a certificate you need:
- Permission to install and run an ACME client on the server, or a platform with ACME built in
- Access to the web server configuration or to your DNS zone
- Outbound internet access from the server to Sectigo's ACME service
Basic shared web hosting that gives no shell or DNS access is not suitable for automation; we handle those sites with manual issuance or recommend moving them.
A typical rollout:
- Discover and list existing certificates and their expiry dates.
- Agree which names become wildcards and which stay single-name.
- Install ACME clients, starting with the certificates that expire first.
- Confirm each automated renewal on the dashboard, then retire the manual process.
Who it suits
Certificate Manager suits any organisation with more than a handful of public certificates: businesses running customer portals, schools and colleges with many web services, charities with campaign microsites, and firms whose remote access, mail and booking systems all depend on valid certificates. It is also a good fit where certificates have been bought ad hoc by different teams, web agencies or suppliers and nobody has the full picture.
If you need organisation or extended validation, S/MIME for email or code signing, talk to us and we will set out the options. Browse other certificate management approaches on this site.
How we help
We find your certificates, set up automation, validate your domains and watch the expiry dashboard for you. When you launch a new site or retire an old one, we add or remove the name and your subscription follows. If a renewal fails, for example after a firewall or DNS change, our team sees the alert and fixes it before the certificate lapses. Contact us for a quote or a certificate discovery on your domains.
How Forever Systems supplies your software licences
Forever Systems Ltd supplies business software subscriptions to UK organisations from one account, with one monthly invoice and a UK team who know the products.
- The right edition first time: we check what you need before you buy, so you are not paying for features you will never use
- Monthly or annual terms where the vendor offers them, and help timing renewals and commitments
- Licence changes handled for you: add or remove users, upgrade editions and true-up without starting a new contract
- Deployment and support from engineers who run these products every day, not just a reseller account
- Consolidated billing and renewal reminders so nothing lapses unexpectedly
We work with businesses, schools, charities and public sector organisations of all sizes.
Need a licence quote or a second opinion on your renewal?
Tell Forever Systems what you need and we will come back to you by email with options, not a hard sell.
Contact usFrequently asked questions
What is Sectigo Certificate Manager?
It is Sectigo's cloud certificate lifecycle management platform. It discovers certificates and issues, renews and revokes them automatically, with dashboards showing what expires and when.
Does Sectigo Certificate Manager support ACME?
Yes. Automated issuance and renewal use the ACME protocol, so you can use common clients such as Certbot, acme.sh and win-acme or servers with ACME built in.
Is it licensed per certificate or per domain?
Through us it is licensed per domain name under management, as a standard single-name or a wildcard certificate, on a monthly or annual term.
Can it handle 47-day certificates?
Yes. Sectigo says Certificate Manager is built for the 47-day maximum lifetime that applies from 15 March 2029, which is why automated ACME renewal is at its centre.
Can I still get a certificate for a device that cannot run ACME?
Yes. Manual issuance is available for appliances and legacy systems, and they still appear on the expiry dashboard.