--- title: Nginx concepts I wish I knew years ago | daily.dev description: Nginx is a web server that can be used as a reverse proxy, load balancer, mail proxy, and HTTP cache. It acts as a middleman between clients and backend... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/nginx-concepts-i-wish-i-knew-years-ago-h2jcsa0ga twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Nginx concepts I wish I knew years ago | daily.dev og:description: Nginx is a web server that can be used as a reverse proxy, load balancer, mail proxy, and HTTP cache. It acts as a middleman between clients and backend... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/nginx-concepts-i-wish-i-knew-years-ago-h2jcsa0ga og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/h2jcSA0ga.png og:image:alt: Nginx concepts I wish I knew years ago og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Nginx concepts I wish I knew years ago **[Community Picks](https://daily.dev/sources/community)** · 8 min read · 47 upvotes · 1 comments ## Summary Nginx is a web server that can be used as a reverse proxy, load balancer, mail proxy, and HTTP cache. It acts as a middleman between clients and backend servers. Nginx uses proxies and reverse proxies to handle requests. Load balancing is an instance of reverse proxy where the load of requests is distributed among multiple backend servers. Nginx can be easily installed and configured on various systems. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@palalet** · 0 upvotes > Seems like the author didnt know the very basics ... --- Tags: [#nginx](https://daily.dev/tags/nginx) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/nginx-concepts-i-wish-i-knew-years-ago-h2jcsa0ga) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Nginx concepts I wish I knew years ago","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/nginx-concepts-i-wish-i-knew-years-ago-h2jcsa0ga","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/nginx-concepts-i-wish-i-knew-years-ago-h2jcsa0ga"},"datePublished":"2024-05-03T17:10:16.689Z","dateModified":"2024-05-09T08:39:06.345Z","description":"Nginx is a web server that can be used as a reverse proxy, load balancer, mail proxy, and HTTP cache. 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