Ingress vs. Reverse Proxy: What's the diff?

Programming
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The Difference Between Ingress Objects and NGINX Reverse Proxies

An Ingress object is an API object in the Kubernetes system, while a NGINX reverse proxy is a type of server that provides features such as load balancing, traffic routing, and TLS/SSL terminating.

An Ingress object is a wrapper of an NGINX reverse proxy, enforcing Kubernetes’ API on it, while an NGINX reverse proxy provides more features than an Ingress object, such as video and image compression, pre-fetching and caching.

Below is a list of differences between Ingress objects and NGINX reverse proxies:

  • An Ingress object is an API object in the Kubernetes system, while a NGINX reverse proxy is a type of server.
  • An Ingress object is a wrapper of an NGINX reverse proxy, enforcing Kubernetes’ API on it, while an NGINX reverse proxy provides more features than an Ingress object, such as video and image compression, pre-fetching and caching.
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  • An Ingress object is specific to the Kubernetes system, while an NGINX reverse proxy can be used outside of Kubernetes.
  • Ingress objects are managed through the Kubernetes API, while NGINX reverse proxies are managed through NGINX configuration files.
  • Ingress objects are designed to handle HTTP and HTTPS traffic, while NGINX reverse proxies can handle various protocols and can be configured for more advanced networking tasks.
  • Ingress objects provide basic routing and load balancing capabilities, while NGINX reverse proxies offer more advanced load balancing algorithms and traffic control options.
  • Ingress objects are limited to the features and configurations provided by the Kubernetes Ingress API, while NGINX reverse proxies offer extensive customization options and can be extended with third-party modules.
  • Ingress objects are typically used within a Kubernetes cluster to route traffic to services, while NGINX reverse proxies can be used as standalone servers or in front of a cluster to handle incoming traffic.
  • Ingress objects rely on the Kubernetes network model and service discovery mechanisms, while NGINX reverse proxies can be configured to use other service discovery mechanisms or load balancing algorithms.