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Forward Proxy vs Reverse Proxy: Direction, Purpose, and Examples

Forward proxy sits in front of clients, hides their identity from the server. Reverse proxy sits in front of servers, hides their identity from clients. Table + examples.

Updated 15 Oct 2026·6-row comparison
Quick answer

Forward proxy: chosen by the user or their network, to reach other sites. Reverse proxy: chosen by a website operator, to protect and speed up their own site.

TL;DR

A forward proxy acts for the visitor: your browser asks it to fetch a site (AnyProxy, a school filter). A reverse proxy acts for the website: it sits in front of the site's servers (Cloudflare, Nginx). Through AnyProxy you can watch both meet: on 15 October 2026 Stack Overflow's Cloudflare front door let AnyProxy through, while umingle.com's Cloudflare settings blocked it. AnyProxy publishes this page and sells a web proxy, so weigh our view accordingly.

Side-by-side

Forward proxy vs Reverse proxy

DimensionForward proxyReverse proxy
Works forThe visitor (or their network admin)The website operator
Sits in front ofClientsServers
HidesThe visitor's IP address from sitesThe origin servers' addresses from visitors
Typical jobsFiltering, unblocking, privacy from sitesTLS termination, caching, load balancing, bot and attack filtering
ExamplesAnyProxy, CroxyProxy, school and office filtersCloudflare, Nginx, HAProxy
Where HTTPS is decryptedAt the forward proxy, if it rewrites pages (AnyProxy does)At the reverse proxy, on the site's behalf

Context

Why this comparison matters

Both are a server in the middle; the question is who it works for. A web proxy is a forward proxy, so the site you visit sees the proxy's address. Many of those sites sit behind a reverse proxy such as Cloudflare, which decides whether to let a forward proxy's traffic in. AnyProxy publishes this page and sells a web proxy, so weigh our view accordingly.

Pick Forward proxy when

Forward proxy is right

  • You want to reach a site your network blocks.
  • You run a school or office network and need to filter outbound browsing.

Pick Reverse proxy when

Reverse proxy is right

  • You run a website and want TLS, caching or bot protection in front of it.
  • You need to spread load across several app servers.

What breaks if you pick wrong

Calling Cloudflare "a proxy that hides you" mixes the two up: it protects sites, and it can block forward proxies, as umingle.com did through all three AnyProxy regions.

We checked

A forward proxy meeting reverse proxies, 15 October 2026

Stack Overflow Newest Questions page loaded through AnyProxy Singapore

Stack Overflow (Cloudflare-protected) through AnyProxy

Worked · SG exit · 2026-10-15

Newest Questions page loaded; the Cloudflare check that sits in front of the site was completed by the proxy.

Cloudflare 'Sorry, you have been blocked - You are unable to access umingle.com' page through AnyProxy Frankfurt

Open umingle.com through AnyProxy

Did not work · FR exit · 2026-10-15

Cloudflare 'Sorry, you have been blocked': the site's own Cloudflare settings refuse datacenter traffic. Same from Singapore and Virginia on 12 Oct.

httpbin.org headers JSON through AnyProxy Singapore with no Via or X-Forwarded-For header

Read the request headers a site receives (httpbin.org/headers) through AnyProxy

Worked · SG exit · 2026-10-15

The site saw the browser's own User-Agent and Accept-Language and no Via or X-Forwarded-For header.

Cloudflare trace text through AnyProxy Singapore showing loc=SG, colo=SIN, TLSv1.3 and sni=plaintext, IP hidden

Open one.one.one.one/cdn-cgi/trace through AnyProxy

Worked · SG exit · 2026-10-15

Cloudflare's trace shows loc=SG, colo=SIN, tls=TLSv1.3, http=http/2 and sni=plaintext for the proxy's own connection; the IP line is hidden.

FAQ

Questions people ask

Is AnyProxy a forward or reverse proxy?
Forward. You ask it to fetch another site. In our httpbin test the site saw the proxy's request with your browser's User-Agent and no X-Forwarded-For header.
Is Cloudflare a forward or reverse proxy?
Reverse, for the sites that use it. It sits in front of their servers and can challenge or block visitors, including forward proxies.
Why do some sites block web proxies?
Their reverse proxy treats datacenter addresses as risky. umingle.com showed Cloudflare's "Sorry, you have been blocked" through AnyProxy in Frankfurt, Singapore and Virginia.

Try the browser-tab option

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