StartCom was the best option for multiple certificates. Their price model was vastly better and I wonder if they are having a hard time getting re-certified because the other CAs didn’t like their model.
You paid for validation not per cert.
Tier 1 was free and the certs were good for a year. Domain/Email control is all that was validated.
Tier 2 was your name, and it was $50 a year, but your certs were valid for 2 years. This allowed you to have your name in your email cert and basic checks were performed for domain certs. You were also allowed one Code Cert.
Tier 3 was more for Organizations or EV certs. Another $50 and the certs were good for 3 years. You could also have code cert with your organization name in it.
$100 every 3 years could get you UNLIMITED Domain, Email, and two Code certs. One in your name and one in your organization name. The best deal if you ask me. I had 5 email certs and 10 domain certs for $25/year as I only needed to verify once two years.
The problem started when they were bought by Wosign
https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wosign.com%2Fenglish...
Then the shady things that got them revoked started happening and now they are closing shop. My same needs will cost close to a thousand dollars a year.