SSLBoard as an SSL Labs alternative
If you’ve ever tested your server’s TLS setup, you’ve probably used Qualys SSL Labs. It’s been the go-to free tool for years, and for good reason: the analysis is thorough, the grading is well understood, and it just works. But SSL Labs was designed to test a single server at a time. If you’re responsible for more than one, its limitations add up.
SSLBoard takes a different approach. You type a domain and get a TLS posture report across every discovered host and endpoint. No account required.
What is SSL Labs?
Qualys SSL Labs provides a free online SSL Server Test that performs a deep analysis of a web server’s TLS configuration. You enter a hostname, wait a few minutes, and get a letter grade from A+ down to F.
The test checks your certificate chain, supported TLS protocol versions, cipher suites, key exchange parameters, and known vulnerabilities. It also simulates handshakes from about 60 different browser and client combinations to show what each one would negotiate. The grading methodology is public, well documented, and has become an industry benchmark. Many compliance teams and security auditors reference SSL Labs grades directly.
For checking a single server, it does the job well.
Where SSL Labs falls short
The trouble starts when you need to check more than one server, or when you need context beyond a letter grade.
One hostname at a time. Each SSL Labs test targets a single hostname. If your organization runs 50 subdomains, you need 50 separate tests. There’s no way to type a root domain and see everything underneath it. For large environments this turns into a repetitive manual process.
No certificate discovery. SSL Labs tests what you point it at, but it can’t tell you what you’ve missed. It doesn’t look at Certificate Transparency logs to find certificates issued for your domain that you might not know about. If a certificate was issued to a subdomain you forgot existed, SSL Labs won’t surface it. You’d have to already know about it to test it.
No deployment verification. SSL Labs tells you what a given hostname is serving. It doesn’t compare what’s in CT logs against what’s actually deployed. It won’t catch a renewed certificate that was never installed, or an endpoint where the old cert is still live on one of three load balancer nodes.
Slow at scale. A single test takes roughly 2 to 5 minutes. That’s fine once, but if you’re testing 30 hostnames you’re looking at over an hour, assuming you babysit the process and kick off each test manually. The API helps with automation, but it’s rate limited to about 25 concurrent assessments and returns 429 errors if you push too hard.
No exports or historical record. Once you close the browser tab, the result is gone (unless you opted into the public cache). There’s no structured export: no CSV, no JSON, no PDF. If you need to attach TLS evidence to an audit or share findings with a colleague, you’re taking screenshots.
No aggregate scoring. SSL Labs gives you a grade per hostname. It doesn’t aggregate findings or give you an overall posture score. If someone asks “how does our TLS look?”, you can’t point them at a single report.
No DNSSEC, CAA, or post-quantum checks. SSL Labs focuses on the TLS handshake and certificate chain. It doesn’t check whether your DNS infrastructure supports DNSSEC, whether you’ve published CAA records to restrict which CAs can issue for your domain, or whether your endpoints support post-quantum key exchange.
How SSLBoard is different
SSLBoard works at the domain level. You type a domain, and it discovers hostnames via Certificate Transparency logs and DNS enumeration, then performs active TLS handshakes against every resolved IP. A few minutes later you have a single report covering your entire public TLS surface.
The report covers certificates (expiration timelines, issuer distribution, key types and sizes, SAN coverage), TLS versions (which endpoints still negotiate 1.0 or 1.1, which support 1.3, associated CVEs), cipher suites (3DES, RC4, EXPORT, NULL, CBC-mode issues mapped to the hosts that accept them), forward secrecy, key analysis (RSA vs. ECC distribution, key sizes), HTTP security (redirect behaviour and HSTS headers), DNSSEC and CAA policy, connection errors (self-signed certs, chain issues, name mismatches), and post-quantum readiness.
The gaps in SSL Labs that matter most are the ones SSLBoard fills directly. It discovers certificates you didn’t know about by ingesting CT logs and matching them to your domain. You see which certificates are actually deployed on your servers, not just which ones exist in logs. It checks DNSSEC and CAA records. It detects post-quantum key exchange support (like X25519Kyber768). And it produces a weighted posture score broken down by category, so you can track improvement or compare across domains.
Every report is shareable via a link. The full report includes per-host breakdowns, data tables, and CSV, Markdown, and JSON exports.
When to use SSL Labs vs. SSLBoard
SSL Labs is a good fit when you want to check the TLS configuration of a single hostname in detail, especially if you want to see browser handshake simulations or you’re chasing a specific A+ grade. It’s free, fast for one-off checks, and the grading is widely recognized.
SSLBoard is a better fit when you’re responsible for more than a handful of hostnames and need a view of your entire domain’s TLS posture at once. It’s useful before compliance reviews, after certificate rotations, when evaluating a third party vendor, or any time someone asks “how does our TLS look?” and you need a concrete answer you can share.
Getting started
Go to sslboard.com, type your domain, and wait a few minutes. Your first scan is always free, with the full report including score, findings, and per-host breakdowns. No account required.