--- title: Reverse proxy vs. API gateway: Key differences explained description: An explainer distinguishes reverse proxies from API gateways, starting with forward proxies for context. Reverse proxies sit in front of backend services... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/reverse-proxy-vs-api-gateway-key-differences-explained-jxl1ciros twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Reverse proxy vs. API gateway: Key differences explained | daily.dev og:description: An explainer distinguishes reverse proxies from API gateways, starting with forward proxies for context. Reverse proxies sit in front of backend services... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/reverse-proxy-vs-api-gateway-key-differences-explained-jxl1ciros og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/jxl1CIROS.png og:image:alt: Reverse proxy vs. API gateway: Key differences explained 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. # Reverse proxy vs. API gateway: Key differences explained **[ngrok Blog](https://daily.dev/sources/ngrok)** · 9 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary An explainer distinguishes reverse proxies from API gateways, starting with forward proxies for context. Reverse proxies sit in front of backend services handling load balancing, caching, TLS termination, and hiding backend IPs. API gateways provide API-specific management including routing, rate limiting, authentication/authorization, and protocol translation, and are described as a specialized type of reverse proxy. Guidance is given on when to choose each, noting they are often used together, and ngrok is promoted as offering both. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What is the difference between a reverse proxy and an API gateway? A reverse proxy sits between clients and backend servers focusing on load balancing, caching, TLS termination, and hiding backend servers from direct exposure; an API gateway is a specialized reverse proxy focused on API management, offering routing, rate limiting, authentication, authorization, and protocol translation for exposing APIs to external clients. _Comparing infrastructure options like these gets easier with architecture discussions curated on daily.dev._ ### When should I use an API gateway instead of a plain reverse proxy? Use an API gateway when exposing and managing APIs for external clients, implementing authentication, authorization, rate limiting, or API documentation, or simplifying communication between microservices in a microservices architecture, such as routing requests in a mobile banking app to account, transaction, and payment services. Use a reverse proxy for load balancing, TLS offloading, and caching in web apps. _Developers weighing gateway versus proxy tradeoffs can follow related backend architecture discussions on daily.dev._ ### What are the main functions an API gateway typically provides? An API gateway typically provides traffic routing based on path, HTTP method, or headers, rate limiting to prevent abuse, authentication and authorization via API keys or JWT tokens, load balancing across backend servers, and protocol translation between formats like REST/SOAP and JSON/XML for integrating heterogeneous systems. _Teams designing API infrastructure can track patterns like these through daily.dev's developer content._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [API Gateway in Microservices: A Complete Guide for Developers](https://daily.dev/posts/api-gateway-in-microservices-a-complete-guide-for-developers-ona7cjfwl) · C\# Corner · 3 upvotes · 0 comments - [Kubernetes Ingress vs Gateway API](https://daily.dev/posts/kubernetes-ingress-vs-gateway-api-jwa9l6ig9) · Isovalent · 7 upvotes · 1 comments - [EP208: Load Balancer vs API Gateway](https://daily.dev/posts/ep208-load-balancer-vs-api-gateway-oii0fuod4) · ByteByteGo · 22 upvotes · 1 comments --- Tags: [#devtools](https://daily.dev/tags/devtools), [#microservices](https://daily.dev/tags/microservices), [#api-gateway](https://daily.dev/tags/api-gateway) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/reverse-proxy-vs-api-gateway-key-differences-explained-jxl1ciros) ```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":"Reverse proxy vs. API gateway: Key differences explained","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/reverse-proxy-vs-api-gateway-key-differences-explained-jxl1ciros","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/reverse-proxy-vs-api-gateway-key-differences-explained-jxl1ciros"},"datePublished":"2026-08-23T07:21:31.634Z","dateModified":"2026-08-23T07:28:08.667Z","description":"An explainer distinguishes reverse proxies from API gateways, starting with forward proxies for context. 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