I thought SSL certificates with a DigitalOcean VPS were easy; then today I learned to deploy a Node app with Now by Zeit.
Following their basic tutorial, I deployed an example app in seconds. Then after creating a CNAME record for a subdomain, I linked the two together, and had my subdomain live with a valid Let’s Encrypt certificate installed and ready.
Everything about working with Now is very refined and the essence of simplicity – from their CLI, to their password-less logins and modern, minimalist account interface. It feels light-years ahead of any other hosting and deployment tooling I’ve played with. (Note that mapping custom domains is part of their Premium plan, but they also provide a free OSS Plan that allows more human-readable URLs than those generated by default.)
kwight.blog 
Are you working on a GitHub repo with all the material related to your last 2 articles about easy SSL?
No, not really — the idea was just to see how complicated these things are these days. Turns out, not at all. Certainly is inspiring though, knowing it’s so easy.
Makes sense! Thx, I’ll give it a shot via Site5 hosting, let’s see if I can make it working there too.
I’ll keep you posted, for now thanks for sharing the knowledge.