Reverse Proxy
IntermediateA server that sits in front of websites and handles incoming traffic for them — the mirror image of the forward proxies used for scraping and privacy.
In depth
A reverse proxy stands in front of one or more web servers and receives requests on their behalf. Visitors connect to the reverse proxy; it forwards each request to the right backend server and returns the response. The client never talks to the origin server directly.
Forward vs reverse
Direction is the whole difference. A forward proxy works for the client — hiding the visitor's IP from the website. A reverse proxy works for the server — hiding the website's infrastructure from the visitor. Every residential or datacenter proxy you buy is a forward proxy; Nginx, Cloudflare, and AWS load balancers are reverse proxies.
Why it matters in the proxy world
- It's the wall you scrape against: anti-bot systems like Cloudflare are reverse proxies that inspect every request — fingerprinting TLS handshakes, scoring IPs, and issuing CAPTCHAs — before the origin ever sees it.
- Load balancing and caching: reverse proxies spread traffic across servers and serve cached copies, which is why hammering one URL can produce inconsistent responses.
- TLS termination: the certificate you see often belongs to the reverse proxy, not the origin.
Practical takeaway
When a site "blocks your proxy," the decision is usually made by its reverse proxy layer — so the target you must satisfy is the anti-bot reverse proxy, not the website's own code.
Examples
- Cloudflare receives all traffic for a news site, filters bots, and passes clean requests to the origin server.
- An Nginx reverse proxy spreads incoming requests across five identical application servers.
- A scraper hitting an API actually negotiates TLS with the site's reverse proxy, whose JA3 checks flag automation.
Common use cases
FAQs
A load balancer is one job a reverse proxy can do. Reverse proxies also cache content, terminate TLS, filter bots, and hide origin infrastructure — load balancing is just the traffic-distribution part of that role.
Because protective reverse proxies like Cloudflare, Akamai, and PerimeterX are what actually block scrapers. Understanding that the gatekeeper is a separate inspection layer explains why IP rotation alone often fails — the layer also reads fingerprints and behavior.
No — that's a forward proxy's job. A reverse proxy protects servers from clients; a forward proxy protects clients from servers. The proxies sold for privacy, scraping, and multi-accounting are all forward proxies.