Reverse Proxy
A reverse proxy sits in front of one or more servers and forwards client requests to them, handling load balancing, caching, TLS termination and security on the servers' behalf.
Definition
A reverse proxy is a server that sits in front of backend servers and forwards incoming client requests to them. To the client it looks like the origin; to the backend it represents the client. It is the mirror image of a forward proxy, which represents clients to the wider internet.
What reverse proxies do
- Load balancing across multiple backend servers.
- TLS termination — decrypting HTTPS so backends do not have to.
- Caching and compression to speed up responses.
- Security — hiding backend IPs and filtering malicious traffic.
Popular reverse proxies include Nginx, HAProxy and Cloudflare.
Examples
Nginx routing traffic to several app servers behind one domain
Cloudflare acting as a reverse proxy to cache and protect a website
Common Use Cases
Frequently Asked Questions
Keep Learning
All termsDNS (Domain Name System)
DNS is the internet's phonebook — it translates human-readable domain names like example.com into the numeric IP addresses computers use to connect.
Read definitionForward Proxy
A forward proxy sits between clients and the internet, forwarding their outbound requests so the destination sees the proxy's IP instead of the client's.
Read definitionHTTP Proxy
An HTTP proxy is an intermediary server that forwards web (HTTP/HTTPS) requests on your behalf, able to read, cache and filter traffic at the application layer.
Read definition