Go Daddy now holds a 20.5 percent share of the SSL market, according to a leading industry analyst firm.

Go Daddy began offering SSL Certs only a little more than four years ago.

Unlike other leading SSL providers, Go Daddy achieved the milestone through pure organic growth, meaning it was not artificially cultivated with mergers or acquisitions.

SSL Certs (Secure Sockets Layer Certificates) are critical when it comes to protecting sensitive information online.

“Our market share has grown so fast for one simple reason,” said Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons. “Our SSL Certs have all the functionality our higher-priced competitors offer – but at a fraction of the cost! Think about it, if you can get the identical product for a much lower price, backed by world-class support, why wouldn’t you? That’s why we have grown, month after month after month.”

Analysts also point out how the Go Daddy growth has been noticeably strong and steady.

“Go Daddy has increased its SSL market share every single month since June 2007,” said Mike Prettejohn, Director of analyst firm Netcraft Ltd. “In the space of just one year, Go Daddy’s SSL certificates have grown by more than 80 percent.”

In the August Netcraft report, Go Daddy tracked the largest absolute growth, gaining 8,693 SSL Certificates.

Go Daddy is the leader for Web sites hosted with SSL Certificates, as well and is the world’s second largest SSL provider.

SSL Certs enable a browser and server to establish a secure, encrypted connection and is the de facto standard for protecting sensitive information from identity theft, hacking and tampering. Businesses, for example, rely on SSL Certificates to stop hackers from accessing credit card information during online transactions.

Most competitors require a new license for each server on which a certificate is installed. Go Daddy allows companies to purchase one certificate and use it on every server hosting the domain. This potentially saves owners of high traffic Web sites thousands of dollars.