What is the difference between load balancer and reverse proxy?

Question

Accepted Answer

**Load Balancer** — distributes traffic. **Reverse Proxy** — intermediary for clients.

**Load Balancer:**
- Distributes across servers.
- Health checks.
- Algorithms (Round Robin, Least Connections).
- L4 or L7.

```
Load Balancer:
Client → [LB] → Server 1
              → Server 2
              → Server 3
(Distribution across servers)
```

**Reverse Proxy:**
- Intermediary for clients.
- Caching, compression.
- SSL termination.
- Security.

```
Reverse Proxy:
Client → [Proxy] → Backend
  (Caching, SSL, security)
```

**Overlap:**
- Many solutions do both.
- NGINX, HAProxy.
- Load balancer is a type of reverse proxy.

**Key differences:**
- **Load Balancer** — distribution focus.
- **Reverse Proxy** — intermediary focus.

Systems Analyst: What is the difference between load balancer and reverse proxy?