What is a Reverse Proxy?

A Reverse Proxy Server can be viewed as a middle-acting server between clients and backend servers. An intermediary between clients and back-end servers, it receives requests from clients on behalf of those servers, routes those requests to the most appropriate back-end server, and returns the server’s response to the client. It may be used to carry out the works such as SSL termination, caching, compression as well as security filtering.

API Gateway vs. Load Balancer vs. Reverse proxy

In System Design, several terms often come up that can be confusing: Through the use of API Gateway, Load Balancer, and Reverse Proxy. This article explains each of these terms to understand what they are, and their differences.

API Gateway vs. Load Balancer vs. Reverse proxy

Important Topics for API Gateway vs. Load Balancer vs. Reverse proxy

  • What is API Gateway?
  • What is a Load Balancer?
  • What is a Reverse Proxy?
  • Difference between API Gateway, Load Balancer, and Reverse Proxy
  • Use Cases of API Gateway, Load Balancer, and Reverse Proxy

Similar Reads

What is API Gateway?

API Gateway is a service that sits between clients and backend services, acting as a reverse proxy to accept incoming requests from clients, perform various operations such as routing, authentication, and rate limiting, and then forward those requests to the appropriate backend services. It serves as a single entry point for clients to access multiple services, providing a unified interface and abstracting the complexities of the underlying architecture....

What is a Load Balancer?

A Load Balancer acts as a traffic distributor, evenly sending network traffic across several units or resources so that the units operate at the optimal capacity while at the same time preventing any one unit from overworking. It will help scale application size, and keep applications up and running while making sure they are available by intelligently routing requests against the defined algorithms like Round Robin, Least Connections, and IP Hash....

What is a Reverse Proxy?

A Reverse Proxy Server can be viewed as a middle-acting server between clients and backend servers. An intermediary between clients and back-end servers, it receives requests from clients on behalf of those servers, routes those requests to the most appropriate back-end server, and returns the server’s response to the client. It may be used to carry out the works such as SSL termination, caching, compression as well as security filtering....

Difference between API Gateway, Load Balancer, and Reverse Proxy

Below are the differences between API gateway, Load Balancer and Reverse Proxy....

Use Cases of API Gateway, Load Balancer, and Reverse Proxy

API Gateway Use Cases...

Conclusion

API Gateways, Load Balancers and Reverse Proxies come with different functions to fulfill in the networking eco-system, they are often all employed in complex architectures to ensure a smooth, secure and scalable communications between the clients and servers....

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