A reverse proxy sits in front of one or more web servers and forwards incoming client requests to them, then returns each server's response to the client as if it came from the proxy itself. Every other proxy type in this glossary is a forward proxy: it sits in front of the client and hides the client's identity from the destination server. A reverse proxy does the opposite; it sits in front of the server and hides the server's identity and internal architecture from the client, which never connects to the origin directly.

Reverse proxies are deployed by the operator of the web service itself, not by whoever is making requests to it, which is why they solve a different set of problems than a forward proxy: balancing traffic across multiple backend servers, terminating TLS before traffic reaches internal servers, caching responses to cut backend load, and shielding origin servers from direct exposure to the internet. Nginx, Cloudflare, and Varnish are common reverse proxy implementations.

  • Proxy Server
  • TCP/IP
  • Latency