Reverse Proxy & Load Balancing

Why Self-Host Your Reverse Proxy?

A reverse proxy is the front door to your self-hosted infrastructure. It terminates TLS connections, routes requests to the correct backend service, handles load balancing, and often provides the first layer of security. Using a managed reverse proxy or CDN means routing all traffic through a third party that can inspect requests, impose rate limits, and charge based on bandwidth. Self-hosting your reverse proxy gives you full control over traffic routing, SSL certificates, and access policies.

The reverse proxy you choose defines how you manage your entire service stack. Container-aware proxies like Traefik automatically discover new Docker services and configure routing without manual intervention. Caddy provides automatic HTTPS with zero-configuration certificate management via Let’s Encrypt and ZeroSSL. Nginx remains the highest-performance option for static file serving and complex routing rules. HAProxy excels at high-availability load balancing across multiple backend servers.

For most self-hosters, the reverse proxy is the single most important infrastructure decision after the operating system. It determines how you handle subdomain routing, authentication, rate limiting, and certificate renewal across all your services. Getting this right with a self-hosted solution means every service behind it benefits from consistent TLS, centralized access logging, and unified authentication — without per-request fees or bandwidth charges from a managed provider.