[electroly]

As someone who is an actual StartSSL customer and not just someone who got confused by the login process and gave up, I think StartSSL is great. I haven't found cheaper identity validation elsewhere, and you can pump out unlimited certificates once you're validated. Using client certificates to log into the site is annoying, but it's fine once you figure out how it works. The problem you describe with losing your cert is not a problem: you can regenerate the login certificate using the "Lost authentication certificate?" link. I have done so and confirm that it works and that you don't need the old certificate to generate a new one. It is tied to a persistent account (contrary to what you claim in your post), so you lose nothing, and had you used an actual computer you could have backed up the certificate.

[stirner]

I can't claim to remember all the details (this was several years ago before I started at uni), but I'm certain I attempted to find an option like this and didn't. It may have been added in the interim or I might have simply been too inexperienced.

[mrgreenfur]

Also a customer, I'm pretty surprised how many people in this techy site were confused by a client cert and couldn't get past it.