Get ready to get to the root of the CertBot problem binding to port 80 Nginx. Our Server Management Support team is here to lend a hand with your queries and issues.

CertBot problem binding to port 80 Nginx | How to Fix

According to our technical experts, the “Problem binding to port 80” error often occurs when we use the Standalone plugin while creating or renewing the certificate. In this scenario, CertBot attempts to create a temporary web server via port 80. Fortunately, there is an easy fix for this issue.

First, our experts recommend running the following command:

netstat -ln

The output of the above command will let us know if port 80 is currently occupied by another application. If yes, we have to temporarily stop that application, use DNS authentication, or set up a proxy to ensure that /.well-known/acme-challenge is served by a web server.

In order to retain the Standalone plugin, we have to stop the existing web server temporarily. We can do this with the command appropriate for our operating system and web server software. For instance:

• Ubuntu & Apache:

  sudo systemctl stop apache2
• CentOS 7 & Apache:

  sudo systemctl stop httpd
• Ubuntu or CentOS 7 & Nginx:

  sudo systemctl stop nginx

Alternatively, we can also use a different plugin to avoid the CertBot error: Problem binding to port 80. Here are some plugin recommendations by our technical experts:

• Apache (–apache):

  It installs & configures certificates with Apache.
• nginx (–nginx flag):

  It installs & configures certificates with Nginx.
• Webroot (–webroot):

  It allows us to install & configure a certificate with a server that is already running.

Let us know in the comments if you still run into trouble with CertBot problem binding to port 80 Nginx.

[Need assistance with a different issue? Our team is available 24/7.]

Conclusion

To conclude, our Support Engineers demonstrated the cause behind the CertBot issue of problem binding to port 80 and how to resolve it.