From client work to a product platform
ChillSSL was my first move from services and client-based work into a proper product-led platform. It is not a side project. It forms a core part of my weekly work and my own client infrastructure, helping me monitor and manage SSL certificates and get an early heads-up when a costly expiry can be avoided before it becomes an outage.
Building it has taken thousands of hours of development and design work, and it carries real, ongoing infrastructure costs to keep it running. If that gives you some sense of how seriously I take it, good. It is a platform I built because I needed it, and one I continue to invest in because my clients depend on it.
FAQ
Is ChillSSL a side project?
ChillSSL grew from a side requirement in my client work, not from the core design-and-build side of the business. Over time it has become a major part of my weekly client infrastructure. I work on it most weeks, and most days when there is a feature, fix, or improvement that needs attention.
Why build ChillSSL when other monitoring tools already exist?
Yes, there are established tools out there, and I have used them myself. Once I started doing serious monitoring across many client sites, I found that legacy tools were not built for how SSL works today. They are still tied to old assumptions: certificates that last ninety, one hundred, or three hundred days, rigid reminder schedules, and fixed ideas about what an expiry warning should look like. That made less and less sense as short-lived certificates and automated renewal became normal.
I am not saying this to boast about ChillSSL. Many incumbent tools have the market share. What I did not see was much innovation or attention to where the industry is heading. If I was going to build something for my own client work, I wanted it to work well today and stay useful as SSL and TLS keep changing.
Could ChillSSL disappear tomorrow?
If you are thinking about using ChillSSL to monitor your certificates, it is fair to ask how long it will be around. To give you a sense of how seriously I take it: I have been freelancing for more than twenty-five years, and working in the web industry for longer than that, back before SSL was commonplace, before most people had email addresses, and long before companies had websites. I am not planning to down tools on ChillSSL tomorrow. It is a newer product, but one I expect to carry with me for the rest of my professional life. If the day ever came when I could not continue with it, I would not leave customers in the lurch. I am glad you asked. It tells me how important SSL monitoring is to you, and I want you to know ChillSSL is a genuine focus of my professional work.
Do you use ChillSSL for your own clients?
Yes. That is how the product started. I built it because I needed reliable SSL monitoring for sites I manage, and I still depend on it for expiry alerts and early warning before a certificate issue becomes an outage.
Who writes the ChillSSL guides and content?
I write the guides and glossary myself. The first drafts and the edits are mine. Everything goes through a proper review so it is accurate and genuinely useful, not just technically correct on paper. Running an SSL monitoring tool day to day is where most of the ideas come from. I am still learning too, and I publish notes as much for my own reference as for anyone else getting started with SSL monitoring.
I have a question, how can I reach you?
Email me at [email protected]. I read everything that comes in. During busy weeks it may take a day or two to reply, but I do get back to people.