Let’s Encrypt Status and Goals

Non-profit and Sponsors Make Let's Encrypt Free

Let's Encrypt is a non-profit organization that does not have to pay its employees. Furthermore, the majority of the operations are automated. That relieves a significant financial load. The required hardware is also mainly provided by the Linux Foundation's collaboration. Sponsorships and donations pay all other expenses.

Anyone can donate any amount to the organization through PayPal. For more considerable sums and organizations, a sponsorship scheme has been developed. The most expensive package costs $350,000, while smaller businesses could pay anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000, depending on the number of employees. Big companies such as Mozilla, Cisco, Chrome, and Facebook are also among the Let's Encrypt project supporters. For example, Automattic, the creator of WordPress, is a silver sponsor: it contributes $50,000 per year. Automattic uses Let's Encrypt to secure the websites hosted on WordPress.com.

A Much Larger Organizational Structure

Let's Encrypt itself is merely the certification service. The Let's Encrypt organization, on the other hand, is much more significant. Its parent organization is the Internet Security Research Group (ISRG). It is a non-profit organization based in San Francisco. Its board includes scientists, company representatives, and representatives of foundations and other non-profit organizations. Aside from ISRG there are two other vital institutions to mention as well.

• The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) - It has been responsible for managing Certbot. Certbot is the software used to create the Let's Encrypt certificates.
• The Linux Foundation - It provides the technical infrastructure, the hardware, for Let's Encrypt through its Collaborative Projects program.