https://www.linuxbabe.com/it-knowledge/differences-between-forward-proxy-and-reverse-proxy
The main difference between the two is that forward proxy is used by the client such as a web browser whereas reverse proxy is used by the server such as a web server. Forward proxy can reside in the same internal network as the client, or it can be on the Internet.
Forward proxy can be used by the client to bypass firewall restrictions in order to visit websites that are blocked by school, government, company etc. If a website blocked an IP range from visiting the website, then a person in that IP range can use forward proxy to hide the real IP of the client so that person can visit the website and maybe leave some spam comments. However forward proxy might be detected by the website administrator. There are some paid proxy service that has numerous proxy systems around the world so that they can change your IP address every time your visit a new web page and this makes it harder for website administrators to detect.
Reverse proxy is mainly used by server admins to achieve load balancing and high availability. A website may have several web servers behind the reverse proxy. The reverse proxy server takes requests from the Internet and forward these requests to one of the web servers. Most visitors don’t know websites are using reverse proxy because they usually lack the knowledge and tools to detect it or they simply don’t care about it. Nginx can be acting both a web server and a reverse proxy at the same time. HAProxy is another well-known open-source reverse proxy software.
