Frequently asked question

Does ArcGIS Online require a Certificate of Authority from a known authority provider?

Last Published: October 1, 2025
No, it is not required to use a certificate of authority (CA). Users may use a self-signed certificate, however this is only advised for test environments. Use a CA once ArcGIS Online is deployed in a production environment.

Using a self-signed certificate in a production environment may cause the following issues to occur:

• Warning messages notifying the user is trying to access an untrusted site in ArcGIS for Desktop and web browsers

• Printing from hosted services and accessing the portal from client applications may result in unexpected behavior

• The inability to open a federated service in the portal map viewer, add a secured service item to the portal, login to ArcGIS Server Manager on a federated service, and connect to the portal from Esri Maps for Office

Note:
Esri Maps for Office is able to sign in if the self-signed certificate is installed into the Trusted Root Certification Authorities certificate store on the machine running the Esri Maps for Office.

Article ID: 000013275

Software:
  • Portal for ArcGIS
  • ArcGIS Server

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