Learning Hub · Beginner · 10 minutes
How to Force HTTPS on Your Site
Everything you need to every visitor on the encrypted version, no exceptions — the steps, the gotcha, and the tip the support desk gives everyone.
The short answer
Goal: every visitor on the encrypted version, no exceptions. Time needed: 10 minutes. Difficulty: beginner.
Below: the exact steps, the classic pitfall, and a pro tip from the support desk. Where our platform automates a step, the guide says so rather than making you do robot work.
Beginner
Skill level
5
Steps to done
Free
Support included
Tested
On our platform
This guide assumes no prior expertise — just a hosting account, a browser, and 10 minutes of attention. Every instruction works on our platform exactly as written, and translates to any standard cPanel host.
Rule of the road: read the gotcha section before you begin, not after — it's harvested from the support tickets of people who didn't.
What you'll do, at a glance
Here's the complete route: confirm the certificate first, flip the panel toggle, or rule it in .htaccess, align wordpress's own urls and sweep for mixed content.
Each stage is a few minutes of focused clicking — the elapsed time mostly depends on how familiar the control panel already feels. The detailed steps are listed further down this page; skim the whole route once before starting.
Read this before you start clicking
Redirect loops from doubled rules — the panel toggle plus a plugin plus an .htaccess rule can chase each other; one redirect mechanism, cleanly configured, is the stable arrangement.
It's worth internalising because it's not a rare edge case — it's the single most common way this task generates a support ticket. Knowing it in advance converts the whole job from risky to routine.
The pro tip worth stealing
Once https is verified stable for a few weeks, HSTS headers tell browsers to skip http entirely on future visits — a small header for a permanent speed-and-security gain; just don't set long HSTS before you're sure.
Small habits like this are the real difference between people who find hosting easy and people who find it stressful — the tools are identical; the workflow isn't.
Where our platform does this for you
Several steps in this guide exist because hosting historically made you do them — on our plans, SSL issues itself, backups run daily without being asked, and one-click installers replace manual setup entirely. What remains is the genuinely-yours part of the task.
And when a step misbehaves anyway, support answers around the clock — with the actual fix, not a knowledge-base link and a shrug. Half our best guides started as patterns in the tickets.
Why this is simpler on HostingAlly
Every walkthrough in our Learning Hub is tested on the platform we actually run — cPanel, LiteSpeed, NVMe, one-click installs — so instructions match your screen instead of gesturing at it.
Our team migrates existing sites free of charge, typically within 24 hours and with zero downtime.
- Step-by-step, tested as written
- The gotcha flagged before you hit it
- Automation covers the boring steps
- 24/7 support if you get stuck
Why HostingAlly
What you get with every plan
Help on standby
Stuck at step three at midnight? Support answers around the clock, mid-guide included.
Automation where it belongs
SSL, backups and installs run themselves here — the guide covers only what's genuinely yours to do.
No jargon tax
Terms are explained in place or linked to the glossary — nothing assumes you already know.
Written from real tickets
Our guides come from the support desk — the gotchas are the ones people actually hit.
The undo is always named
Where a step could bite, the guide says so and gives the reversal.
Works as written
Every step tested on our own platform — no 'your host may vary' hand-waving.
Getting Started
How to get going
- 1
Confirm the certificate first
Redirecting to broken SSL is worse than no redirect — the padlock must work on a direct https visit before forcing anyone there.
- 2
Flip the panel toggle
cPanel's Domains page offers Force HTTPS per domain — the clean, config-level redirect that covers the whole site.
- 3
Or rule it in .htaccess
The classic RewriteRule sending http to https achieves the same explicitly — useful when you want the rule versioned with the site.
- 4
Align WordPress's own URLs
Settings → General should read https — WordPress generating http links onto an https site creates redirect churn on every click.
- 5
Sweep for mixed content
Database search-replace of embedded http references (images especially) completes the job — the padlock should hold steady across every page.
Included
What's covered on our plans
- DDoS protection at the network level
- Free SSL certificate on every plan, renewed automatically
- LiteSpeed server-level caching
- NVMe SSD storage as standard
- 24/7 support from real people
- Renewal prices that match signup prices
- Free website migration handled by our team
- SSH, Git and Composer access on developer-friendly plans
- Free domain for the first year on annual plans
- One-click installer for WordPress and 400+ apps
FAQ
Your questions, answered
Does forcing HTTPS affect my search rankings?
Positively — https is a ranking signal, and the 301 redirects transfer existing equity. Expect Search Console to track the https URLs as canonical within weeks; that's the migration completing, not a problem.
Browser says 'too many redirects' after forcing HTTPS — help?
Two mechanisms are fighting — typically a plugin redirect plus the panel/htaccess rule, or a proxy-layer mismatch. Disable all but one redirect source, clear caches, and the loop resolves.
Can I host more than one website on a plan?
On the Pro tier and above, yes — multiple sites with their own domains, email and SSL under one account. If the extra sites belong to clients rather than you, reseller hosting gives each one proper isolation instead.
Is there a money-back guarantee?
Yes — try the hosting properly and if it doesn't fit, the refund process is a request, not a retention gauntlet. Domain registrations are the one standard carve-out, since registries make those non-refundable the moment they're placed.
Do you include email with hosting?
Yes — mailboxes on your own domain come with every hosting plan, with webmail, IMAP/POP/SMTP access and spam filtering. Standalone email hosting also exists for domains whose websites live elsewhere.
Which control panel do you provide?
cPanel — the industry standard, which means every tutorial on the internet matches your screen, your backups restore anywhere cPanel runs, and skills learned here transfer for life. Plesk and DirectAdmin options exist on specific plans for those who prefer them.
Do prices go up at renewal?
No — the price you sign up at is the price you renew at. We don't run teaser-rate economics, so there's no year-two ambush to plan around, and your bookkeeping can rely on the number staying put.
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