diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/221-acme-meta.yml b/changelogs/fragments/221-acme-meta.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..aa1e660f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/221-acme-meta.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+- "acme_* modules - avoid crashing for ACME servers where the ``meta`` directory key is not present (https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.crypto/issues/220, https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.crypto/pull/221)."
diff --git a/plugins/module_utils/acme/acme.py b/plugins/module_utils/acme/acme.py
index 854f6552..4deb653d 100644
--- a/plugins/module_utils/acme/acme.py
+++ b/plugins/module_utils/acme/acme.py
@@ -82,6 +82,9 @@ class ACMEDirectory(object):
             for key in ('newNonce', 'newAccount', 'newOrder'):
                 if key not in self.directory:
                     raise ModuleFailException("ACME directory does not seem to follow protocol ACME v2")
+            # Make sure that 'meta' is always available
+            if 'meta' not in self.directory:
+                self.directory['meta'] = {}
 
     def __getitem__(self, key):
         return self.directory[key]