A SSL certificate authority or provider is one who issues digital security certificates to individuals or entities upon verification of their identities. SSL certification is very important in today’s internet connected world because of the proliferation of online fraud and scams. These providers deliver certification for web sites to show that they are digitally secure for online transactions.
SSL certificate authority or providers offer different types of certificates for use in domains which gives users a way to transmit data privately and securely to the servers hosting the domain they need to access. Typical users in need of SSL certification from certificate authorities or providers include most financial institution like banks and eCommerce sites who deal with monetary transactions foo credit cards, PayPal, and the like.
At the end of the day, a SSL certificate authority is still a service provider and as such not all are the same, even the strengths of their security certificates differ even though they are using the same or similar standards.