Install Namecheap SSL Certificate on Hostinger Shared Hosting

Hostinger includes free Let’s Encrypt certificates, but they don’t cover every use case. If you’re managing an e-commerce site that needs warranty-backed Sectigo certs, an Organization Validation (OV) certificate, or an existing multi-year wildcard you bought through Namecheap, you’ll need to install it manually in hPanel.

I recently moved an e-commerce client over to Hostinger shared hosting while keeping their paid 2-year Namecheap Sectigo wildcard cert. Getting it working meant generating a local CSR, clearing domain validation, stitching together the CA bundle, and pasting the keys into hPanel. Here’s the exact flow to get it up with a solid certificate chain without running into mobile trust errors.

Generate Your Private Key and CSR

Before Namecheap can issue anything, you need a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) and a 2048-bit RSA private key. Avoid web-based CSR generators—generate your keys locally in terminal so your private key never leaves your machine.

Run this in your terminal to generate both files at once:

openssl req -new -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes  -keyout example.com.key  -out example.com.csr

OpenSSL will ask for a few details. Here’s what to enter:

• Country Name (2 letter code): Your two-letter country code (like US, GB, or CA).
• State or Province Name: Spelled out completely (e.g., California).
• Locality Name: Your city (e.g., San Francisco).
• Organization Name: Your legal company name or personal name.
• Organizational Unit Name: Department (e.g., IT, or press Enter to leave blank).
• Common Name: The exact domain to secure. Use example.com for a single domain, or *.example.com for a Wildcard SSL.
• Email Address: An admin contact email.
• A challenge password: Leave this completely blank—just press Enter.

You’ll now have example.com.key (your secret key—keep this safe) and example.com.csr (what you submit to Namecheap).

Activate the SSL in Namecheap

With your CSR ready, head to your Namecheap account:

1. Open SSL Certificates from the Namecheap sidebar.
2. Locate your certificate and click Activate.
3. Open example.com.csr in your editor or run cat example.com.csr in terminal.
4. Copy the whole block, including the -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST----- and -----END CERTIFICATE REQUEST----- lines.
5. Paste it into Namecheap’s CSR input. Namecheap will parse the domain and organization details automatically.
6. Set the web server type to cPanel / Apache / Nginx / Other (Hostinger runs LiteSpeed/OpenLiteSpeed, which uses standard Apache PEM formatting).

Complete Domain Control Validation (DCV)

Namecheap/Sectigo won’t issue the cert until you prove you own the domain. You get three validation options:

• DNS CNAME record: The most reliable method, especially if your site isn’t live yet.
• HTTP-based validation: Dropping a .txt file under /.well-known/pki-validation/ on your web root.
• Email validation: Confirming via emails sent to standard addresses like admin@example.com.

I always use the DNS CNAME method because it doesn’t break if web routes change mid-setup. If your DNS is already pointed at Hostinger, check our guide on how to point Namecheap DNS to Hostinger without breaking email to add the record directly to your active DNS zone.

Add the Host and Target values Namecheap gives you into your DNS manager. Propagation usually takes 3 to 10 minutes. You can check it with dig:

dig +short CNAME _c123456789abcdef.example.com

Once the record resolves to Sectigo’s validation server, Namecheap marks the SSL as Active and lets you download the signed files as a ZIP archive.

Download and Prepare the Certificate Files

Unzip the archive you got from Namecheap or your Sectigo email. Inside, you’ll see a few .crt files:

• example_com.crt (Your main domain certificate)
• example_com.ca-bundle (The root and intermediate CA chain combined)
• Or individual intermediate files like SectigoRSADomainValidationSecureServerCA.crt and USERTrustRSAAAACA.crt

If Namecheap provided separate intermediate files instead of a combined bundle, concatenate them in terminal in the correct order:

cat SectigoRSADomainValidationSecureServerCA.crt  USERTrustRSAAAACA.crt  AAACertificateServices.crt > example.com.ca-bundle

You need three pieces ready for the next step: example_com.crt, example.com.ca-bundle, and the example.com.key file you created earlier.

Install Custom SSL in Hostinger hPanel

Now let’s load everything into Hostinger:

1. Log in to Hostinger hPanel.
2. Go to Websites and click Manage on your domain.
3. In the sidebar, head to Security > SSL (or search for SSL).
4. If Hostinger already has an active Let’s Encrypt cert on this domain, click the three dots next to it and hit Uninstall.
5. Scroll down to the Custom SSL section and click Install custom SSL.

You’ll see three text fields: Certificate (CRT), Private Key (KEY), and Certificate Authority Bundle (CABUNDLE).

Paste each file into its matching box:

1. Certificate (CRT): The full text of example_com.crt (including the BEGIN/END lines).
2. Private Key (KEY): The full text of your example.com.key.
3. Certificate Authority Bundle (CABUNDLE): The entire contents of example.com.ca-bundle.

Hit Install SSL. Hostinger checks that the private key matches the certificate modulus and deploys it in about 30 seconds.

Verify the Certificate Chain and Force HTTPS

Don’t just open Chrome to verify. Desktop browsers cache intermediate certs locally and might show a green padlock even if your chain is missing intermediates—which will break on mobile devices and API clients.

Test the TLS handshake directly with OpenSSL:

openssl s_client -connect example.com:443 -servername example.com

Check the Certificate chain section in the output. You should see depth 0 (your domain), depth 1 (Sectigo Intermediate), and depth 2 (Root CA), ending with Verify return code: 0 (ok).

Then test redirects and HTTP headers with curl:

curl -Iv https://example.com

To redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS, toggle Force HTTPS inside hPanel under Websites > Manage > Security > SSL. Or drop this rewrite rule at the very top of your .htaccess file inside public_html:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]

If you’re building a more complex setup with CDNs or split routing, take a look at how to deploy a web app on Hostinger with Namecheap DNS and SSL or how to connect a Namecheap domain to Hostinger through StackPath CDN.

Fix Common Custom SSL Errors

A few common hiccups when loading third-party certs into Hostinger and how to solve them fast.

Key and Certificate Modulus Mismatch

If hPanel complains with “Private key does not match certificate”, the CSR you gave Namecheap was generated with a different private key than the one you pasted into hPanel. Compare their MD5 hashes locally:

openssl x509 -noout -modulus -in example_com.crt | openssl md5
openssl rsa -noout -modulus -in example.com.key | openssl md5

If those hash strings don’t match character-for-character, hPanel will reject them. You’ll need to reissue the certificate in your Namecheap dashboard using the matching CSR, or generate a fresh key pair and reissue.

SSL Chain Incomplete on Mobile

If the site works on desktop browsers but iOS Safari or Android Chrome throws SSL_ERROR_UNTRUSTED_ISSUER, you skipped the CA Bundle field in hPanel. Open the Custom SSL section in Hostinger again, paste the full .ca-bundle contents, and save. For deeper TLS configs, check the Mozilla SSL Configuration Generator and the OpenSSL documentation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I install a Namecheap Wildcard SSL on Hostinger?

Yes. Set *.example.com as the Common Name when generating your CSR. Once Namecheap issues the certificate, upload the CRT, CA bundle, and private key to hPanel under the primary domain. It will protect the root domain and all first-level subdomains hosted under that account.

Why should I use a paid Namecheap SSL instead of Hostinger’s free Let’s Encrypt SSL?

Let’s Encrypt is great for standard blogs and staging sites. Namecheap commercial certs are used when you need financial warranty coverage ($10k to $1.75M+), Organization Validation (OV/EV), multi-year issuance terms, or wildcard certificates you can install across different servers outside Hostinger.

Will my SSL certificate renew automatically on Hostinger?

No. Hostinger only auto-renews its native Let’s Encrypt certs. For third-party certificates, you’ll need to renew on Namecheap when it expires, generate a fresh CSR, pass domain validation again, and paste the updated CRT and CA-bundle files into hPanel.

What happens if I point my root domain via CNAME instead of an A record?

Standard DNS RFCs don’t allow CNAME records at the apex root domain unless your DNS provider supports ALIAS records or CNAME flattening. Check our guide on pointing root domains in Namecheap DNS with A records vs CNAME to prevent DNS misconfigurations from breaking your validation.