What is the difference between using Proxy Path and Redirect in the context of routing and network requests?

Proxy Path and Redirect are two different approaches in routing and handling network requests:

• Proxy Path (proxying) — the server receives a request from the client and forwards it to another server (backend), then returns the response to the client. The client does not know about the final server; everything happens transparently. Example: Nginx proxies requests to an API.

  • Advantages: hides internal structure, allows combining multiple services under one domain.
  • The client sees a single URL; requests are not redirected.

• Redirect — the server responds to the client with a redirect status code (e.g., 301 or 302) and a new URL. The client then makes a new request to this URL.

  • Advantages: the client explicitly navigates to another address, useful for changing URLs or load balancing.
  • Disadvantage: an additional round of requests, the client sees the URL change.

Summary: Proxy Path is an internal server-side request forwarding without client participation, Redirect instructs the client to go to a different address.