Forward Proxy vs Reverse Proxy — Explained in 30 Seconds
Forward proxy or reverse proxy?
They sound similar, but they solve opposite problems.
A FORWARD PROXY sits in front of clients. It forwards requests out to the
internet, controls access, filters traffic, and hides client IP addresses.
Think corporate egress, content filtering, scraping infrastructure.
A REVERSE PROXY sits in front of servers. It routes incoming requests,
balances load, terminates TLS, and shields your backend from direct exposure.
Think Nginx, HAProxy, Cloudflare, an API gateway.
The key difference:
→ A forward proxy represents the CLIENT.
→ A reverse proxy represents the SERVER.
Same machine in the middle. Opposite side of the conversation.
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