Introduction
Securing your web applications with SSL/TLS certificates is no longer optional—it's a must. Let's Encrypt provides free, automated, and open certificates, making it a popular choice for developers and IT admins. In this article, I'll walk you through installing a Let's Encrypt SSL certificate on an IIS server running inside Microsoft Azure .
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Prerequisites
Before we begin, ensure you have:
An IIS server deployed on an Azure Virtual Machine (Windows Server).
A public domain name (DNS record) pointing to your IIS server’s public IP.
Port 80 (HTTP) and 443 (HTTPS) are allowed in your Azure Network Security Group (NSG) / firewall.
Step 1. Log in to your IIS server and make sure the IIS web service is installed
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Step 2. Here, you can see that I’ve pointed my IIS server to my DNS name.
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Step 3. Download and Install Win-ACME Client
Let’s Encrypt doesn’t provide a native Windows client, but we can use Win-ACME , a popular ACME client for Windows.
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Step 4. Request a Let’s Encrypt Certificate
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Note: Before running this, ensure that your site already has an HTTPS binding configured.
Step 5. Here, I will create the certificate using the default settings, so I’ll press option N and then select option 1 .
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Step 6. Press A to select all bindings, then choose your domain name.
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Now we can see that the Let’s Encrypt certificate has been successfully installed.
Step 7. At this stage, you can see that the SSL certificate has been successfully installed on my website.
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Step 8. Here, you can view more details about the Let's Encrypt SSL certificate.
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Conclusion
With these steps, you’ve successfully installed a free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate on your IIS server hosted in Azure. This ensures encrypted communication, improved customer trust, and better search engine ranking—all without additional licensing costs.