Load balancer vs reverse proxy: what's the difference? — by icky3000 on Server Fault

beginnerforumCC BY-SA (Stack Exchange; version depends on post date)

A plain-English explanation: a load balancer spreads requests across several servers, while a reverse proxy is a broader tool that can load-balance and also cache, terminate SSL, compress and filter traffic. Often one product does both jobs.

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Source: Load balancer vs reverse proxy: what's the difference? by icky3000 on Server Fault. Licence: CC BY-SA (Stack Exchange; version depends on post date).

Source reviewed: 2026-11-02
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Tested hands-on: Not by Oddbyte.Me

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