HTTP vs HTTPS performance

Question

Are there any major differences in performance between http and https? I seem to recall reading that HTTPS can be a fifth as fast as HTTP. Is this valid with the current g

Answer 1

In addition to everything mentioned so far, please keep in mind that some (all?) web browsers do not store cached content obtained over HTTPS on the local hard-drive for security reasons. This means that from the user's perspective pages with plenty of static content will appear to load slower after the browser is restarted, and from your server's perspective the volume of requests for static content over HTTPS will be higher than would have been over HTTP.