Stop Confusing API Gateway, Load Balancer And Reverse Proxy
API Gateway, Load Balancer, Reverse Proxy - if you've ever confused these terms or nodded along in meetings without fully understanding the difference, this video is for you.
These three sit between clients and servers. They all forward requests. But they solve fundamentally different problems.
In this video, I break down:
What each component actually does (with clear diagrams)
When you need one vs another vs all three
How they work together in production systems
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:28 Reverse Proxy - The Foundation
2:13 Load Balancer - Distributing Traffic
4:17 API Gateway - Managing APIs
6:50 The Overlap - Why It's Confusing
8:00 Real-World Architecture
9:01 Decision Framework
9:31 Recap
More Videos :
Software Egineering Basics - • Software Engineering Basics
Software Design - • Software Design
Resources mentioned:
Nginx, HAProxy, Caddy, Apache (Reverse Proxies)
AWS ALB/NLB, GCP Load Balancer (Load Balancers)
Kong, AWS API Gateway, Apigee, Azure APIM, Tyk (API Gateways)