Nginx (as Reverse Proxy)

Nginx is a high-performance web server that is widely deployed as a reverse proxy and software load balancer in front of application servers. In proxy mode, Nginx terminates TLS, decodes HTTP/2, routes requests to upstream backends using configurable balancing algorithms (round-robin, least-connected, ip_hash), caches upstream responses, and adds or strips headers. The proxy_pass directive forwards requests to upstream server pools defined in upstream blocks. Nginx Plus (commercial) adds active health checks, live traffic dashboards, JWT authentication, and dynamic configuration via the API.