What Is a Reverse Proxy?
A reverse proxy sits in front of one or more backend servers, forwarding client requests to them and returning the response, while appearing to clients as if...
Published October 9, 2026
A reverse proxy sits in front of one or more backend servers, forwarding client requests to them and returning the response, while appearing to clients as if it were the actual server.
Why it exists
- Exposing application servers directly to the internet complicates handling TLS, load balancing, and security uniformly across them
- A reverse proxy centralizes those concerns in one place, in front of any number of backend servers
How to apply it
- Common reverse proxies include Nginx and Apache, often placed in front of application servers like Node.js or PHP-FPM
- Typical responsibilities include TLS termination, load balancing across multiple backend instances, and serving static files directly
FAQ
Is a reverse proxy the same as a load balancer?
They overlap — a reverse proxy can perform load balancing as one of its jobs, but a reverse proxy's role is broader, also covering things like TLS termination and routing based on the request path.