Staging site SSL and creation limits

SSL on staging sites

Every staging site gets its own SSL certificate so it works over HTTPS. Web60 handles this automatically when you create a staging site.

In most cases, SSL is set up within seconds. However, SSL certificates are issued by Let's Encrypt, which enforces rate limits to prevent abuse. If you create and delete staging sites frequently, you may hit these limits.

The weekly creation limit

Let's Encrypt allows up to 5 certificates per domain per week (7 days). This means:

• If you create a staging site, delete it, and create another one, each creation counts toward the limit.
• After 5 creations in a week, new staging sites will still be created and work normally, but SSL setup will be delayed.

Your Web60 dashboard shows a warning when you are approaching this limit:

What happens when SSL is delayed

If your staging site is created but SSL cannot be set up immediately:

• Your staging site works normally — you can access it, make changes, and use all tools.
• A blue banner appears on the Staging page: "SSL certificate is being set up".
• Web60 automatically retries SSL setup every 30 minutes in the background.
• Once the certificate is issued, the banner disappears and HTTPS works.

You do not need to do anything — the SSL will activate automatically.

How to avoid hitting the limit

The simplest way to avoid SSL delays is to avoid deleting and recreating staging sites unnecessarily:

• Use Sync from Live to refresh your staging site with the latest content from your live site, instead of deleting and creating a new one.
• Use Push to Live to apply your staging changes to your live site, then sync again when you need to test more changes.
• Only delete your staging site if you genuinely no longer need it.

See Staging site best practices for more tips.