Is it normal for https to be annoyingly slower than http?

[cochlear]

After spending ages customising my shop, I've finally moved into the live testing stage. The 1st thing I notice is, the https pages are quite sluggish compared to normal http pages. Is this normal?

I've been testing using my host's shared security certificate. Could the choice of certificate affect browsing speed at all? I'm using shared only because I'm still waiting for my thawte certificate.

[fairestcape]

Slower performance may indeed by a consequence of shared SSL. There may be scores of other sites relying on this shared SSL and if all are drawing on the server at the same time, performance will be affected.

If you experience the same performance issue when you have a dedicated SSL, then contact your host.

[sanguisdesign]

I'm still waiting for my thawte certificate.

certs should be pretty instant, in receiving them. you should look into why you don't have it.

JOsh

[cochlear]

There may be scores of other sites relying on this shared SSL and if all are drawing on the server at the same time, performance will be affected.

Thanks. That makes perfect sense. Hopefully I'll get my own cert soon.

[cochlear]

certs should be pretty instant, in receiving them. you should look into why you don't have it.

Yeah I thought I was supposed to recieve in "minutes". I've already emailed dotster re: the delay. But their customer service seems a bit slow.

[fairestcape]

Thawte can take longer as they often do a very thorough check on your credentials...