Let's Encrypt: Is it equally good for SEO as any other paid certificate?

SEO Forum uses Let's encrypt as well. It's just pretty common solution these days, and it works for 99% of websites.

I don't think there is anything wrong about LE certificate, even if you are bigger website. It's all about the security first, not the name of CA, and in LE case, it uses same encryption, same algo, ... so why pay for it? LE is well spread out certificate, so unless you need EV, which you likely do not, use LE and enjoy.

Simply use Google's Let's Encrypt and never look back :P I use it for my affiliate websites, and they are doing pretty well in Google. There is no point overpaying fancy certificates to make Google love you. Think users first. As far as your users can transport their requests over to your server and vice-versa securely, that's all you should care about. I think that's also what Google cares about. To make their users secure in first place. Whole point of Google forcing you to use SSL certificate for your website is not about making it harder for you to rank. It's all about users and their security. That's why I think it's fair and we should accept that.

If you are asking, because you are considering https over http, then the answer is https, regardless the certificate. Read more details about https vs. http.

If you're comparing any paid vs. Let's encrypt the more important question here is, what is the acceptance of the Certificaton Authority (CA), that issued your certificate.

Talking about Google an their Let's Encrypt, these days you're good to go with it. And yes, it does equally good job securing your website as virtually any other certificate, assuming same parameters.

If you are a bank or other financial (security critical) organization, there are better options though. However, I don't think that's the case.