The only downside to wildcard certs through StartSSL is that getting one requires high-resolution proof of personal identity, to be kept on file outside local jurisdiction (the company's based in Israel) until the cert's final renewal or revocation, plus seven years.

I admire their model of only charging for operations which require human intervention, like identity validation, but handing over that degree of documentation for that amount of time requires a lot of trust, not just of the company as it currently exists, but as it will exist in the far future.

If there was a way to validate organizations which wasn't layered on top of an earlier validation of an individual, or if their decentralized web-of-trust was usable for class 2/wildcard certs, I'd be a big fan.

As it is, there's no reason not to use Start for class 1, single-domain certs, for which the validation is automated and reasonable.