Actalis SSL vs Let's Encrypt
Actalis SSL is a European alternative to Let's Encrypt — same security & identity use case, built under EU data-protection law.
By the EU Alternatives team Last updated
- Jurisdiction
- EU / EEA
- GDPR by default
- Yes
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- No
- Open source
- No
- Free tier
- No
Let's Encrypt — a non-EU product.
- Jurisdiction
- US
- GDPR by default
- Requires DPA + TIA
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- Yes
About Actalis SSL
Actalis SSL provides SSL/TLS certificates and digital trust services from one of Europe's leading Certification Authorities. Operating for more than twenty years as an eIDAS-qualified Trust Service Provider, Actalis issues DV, OV, and EV certificates alongside S/MIME email certificates, code-signing certificates, and QWAC certificates for PSD2 compliance.
As a full-member CA of the CA/Browser Forum, Actalis roots are pre-installed in every major browser and operating system. Certificates start from around €30 per year, are issued through an automated portal with API access, and extend naturally into qualified electronic signatures, timestamping, and secure-email solutions for enterprise rollouts.
Key benefits:
- Full certificate range covering DV, OV, EV, Wildcard, Multi-Domain, and SAN
- QWAC certificates for banks and payment providers under PSD2
- S/MIME certificates for encrypted and authenticated business email
- Code signing for Windows, macOS, and Java application publishers
- CA/Browser Forum member with roots trusted by default in every browser
Actalis S.p.A. is headquartered in Bergamo, Italy, and operates from a Tier-4 datacenter compliant with ANSI/TIA-942 Rating 4. The company is eIDAS-qualified and certified to ISO 9001, ISO 27001, ISO 37001, ISO 45001, ISO 20000-1, and ISO 22301, all under full GDPR and European jurisdiction.
Trusted by OVHcloud, Swedbank, Insiel, BCC, GSE, and the Italian Central Public Administration, with tens of millions of end users relying on Actalis certificates every day.
Why choose Actalis SSL over Let's Encrypt?
The decisive argument is data jurisdiction. Let's Encrypt is headquartered in US, which means personal data processed through it can be subject to non-EU legal regimes — the US CLOUD Act, FISA 702, or similar laws depending on the provider. After the 2020 Schrems II ruling, EU organisations must carry out a transfer impact assessment for every such data flow.
Actalis SSL removes that overhead. As a Italy-based provider, it operates natively under GDPR, and data stays inside the EU/EEA by default. For regulated sectors — health, public administration, finance — that's not a nice-to-have but a requirement. For everyone else, it's concentration-risk insurance: you avoid depending on a single non-EU jurisdiction that can change the rules without warning.