Reverse Proxy
A proxy that sits in front of web servers and answers requests on their behalf, handling load balancing, caching, HTTPS, and security.
Full Definition
A reverse proxy sits on the server side of the network and intercepts incoming requests before they reach the origin server. From the client's perspective, the reverse proxy is the server — its IP is what resolves from the domain's DNS. Cloudflare, nginx, and HAProxy are common reverse proxies. Reverse proxies handle TLS termination (offloading HTTPS from the origin), load balancing across multiple backend servers, caching, rate limiting, and bot detection. From a scraping perspective, hitting a Cloudflare-protected site means your requests are evaluated by Cloudflare's reverse proxy before the origin server ever sees them.
