Subscribe to the InCommon Certificate Service

Learn how to get started

Subscribing to the InCommon Certificate Service

InCommon offers the InCommon Certificate Service to the higher education community, providing unlimited server and personal certificates at a low, fixed fee. Follow the steps below to learn how you can subscribe.

1. Are you eligible?

The certificate service is open to:

Any higher education institution with its primary location in the United States, and that qualifies for a primary domain name in .edu.
Not-for-profit regional research and education networking organizations in the United States.
Certain other non-profit research organizations.
If you have a question about eligibility, visit our Help page

2. Sign the Agreement and the Addendum

If your organization is not already an InCommon Participant, sign the Participation Agreement. Here’s a preview copy (pdf); the actual signing is done electronically through this DocuSign link.

Sign the Certificate Service Subscriber Addendum
Here’s a preview copy (pdf); the actual signing is done electronically through this DocuSign link.

3. Support InCommon and the Certificate Service

InCommon participation fees support the InCommon organization. The Certificate Service subscription fees support unlimited certificates for your organization. Please note that Certificate Service subscribers are invoiced for both InCommon participation and Certificate Service subscription.

4. Register

We will send a link to register your organization’s official contacts; first the InCommon Executive and then the Registration Authority Officers (RAO’s) (maximum of three). RAO’s have access to the Certificate Manager (CM) interface for domain name and certificate management, and the ability to appoint Department Registration Authority Officers (DRAO’s) to distribute the management of domains and certs.

5. Manage your domains

The RAO(s) will obtain access to the Certificate Manager (CM). Find admin guides and more documentation here.

You can also use single-sign on to access the CM! See more about that here.