```yaml
product: AlterLab
title: "API Gateway — Web Scraping Glossary | AlterLab"
comparison_context: "AlterLab is an alternative to Firecrawl, ScrapingBee, and Bright Data."
source_url: https://alterlab.io/glossary/api-gateway
```

infrastructure

# API Gateway

An API gateway is a reverse proxy that sits in front of backend services, handling authentication, rate limiting, routing, and protocol translation for incoming API requests.

An API gateway is the single entry point for all client requests to a platform. It receives incoming HTTP requests, authenticates the caller (API key validation, OAuth token verification), applies rate limiting and quota enforcement, routes the request to the appropriate backend microservice, and returns the response to the caller. It may also handle caching, request/response transformation, logging, and TLS termination.

For scraping platforms, the API gateway is where per-user concurrency limits and credit checks are enforced — a request that exceeds the account's concurrency cap is queued or rejected at the gateway layer before any worker resources are consumed. This architecture protects the backend from overload while giving the platform fine-grained control over resource allocation.

Popular API gateway implementations include Kong, AWS API Gateway, Traefik, and NGINX. AlterLab uses Traefik as a reverse proxy to route traffic to the API service containers while handling TLS termination.

### What is API Gateway?

An API gateway is a reverse proxy that sits in front of backend services, handling authentication, rate limiting, routing, and protocol translation for incoming API requests.

### How does AlterLab handle API Gateway?

Popular API gateway implementations include Kong, AWS API Gateway, Traefik, and NGINX. AlterLab uses Traefik as a reverse proxy to route traffic to the API service containers while handling TLS termination.

## Related Terms

[REST APIA web service that exposes data and actions through standard HTTP methods and resource-oriented URLs, returning structured JSON responses.](https://alterlab.io/glossary/rest-api)[Rate LimitingA server-side control that caps the number of requests accepted from a single IP or session within a time window, returning HTTP 429 when exceeded.](https://alterlab.io/glossary/rate-limiting)[API AuthenticationThe mechanisms used to verify the identity of callers making requests to an API, typically via API keys, OAuth tokens, or JWT.](https://alterlab.io/glossary/api-authentication)[Scraping APIA managed web scraping service that abstracts proxy rotation, JavaScript rendering, and automatic website compatibility into a single HTTP endpoint.](https://alterlab.io/glossary/scraping-api)[Content Delivery Network (CDN)A distributed network of servers that delivers web content from locations geographically close to the user, often where anti-bot protection is deployed.](https://alterlab.io/glossary/content-delivery-network)

## Extract API Gateway data from any website

AlterLab returns clean, structured data from any public URL — no scraper infrastructure needed. Start free, no credit card required.

[View API docs](https://alterlab.io/docs/api/rest)

[Back to Glossary](https://alterlab.io/glossary)