September 12, 2025
Real-Time Revolution: Diving into the World of WebSockets and Long Polling
Introduction
Modern users expect web applications to work as fast and responsive as native software. Chats, stock quotes, collaborative document editing — all these scenarios require instant data exchange. In this article, we’ll break down how Long Polling works, why it was replaced by WebSockets, and how to properly configure these technologies on popular web servers.
The Real-Time Problem and the First Solution: Long Polling
HTTP was originally designed for the request-response model: the client contacts the server, the server replies, and the connection closes. For dynamic applications, this is inconvenient.
September 6, 2025
Caddy vs. Traefik vs. HAProxy vs. Nginx vs. Apache
Introduction
Choosing a web server and reverse proxy today depends on tasks and infrastructure.
Caddy, Traefik, HAProxy, Nginx, and Apache are five popular solutions, each with its strengths and weaknesses.
In this article, we’ll compare them by key criteria: philosophy, installation, SSL, CI/CD, and complexity.
Comparison by Key Criteria
| Criterion | Caddy | Traefik | HAProxy | Nginx | Apache |
|---|
| Philosophy | Simplicity, automatic SSL | Dynamic routing and Service Discovery | High-performance load balancer | Universal web server and proxy | Classic web server, static approach |
| Installation | Single binary | Container, requires setup | Single binary, manual configuration | OS package, easy installation | OS package, easy installation |
| SSL Automation | Built-in, main advantage | Built-in, part of ecosystem | No (requires external integration, e.g., certbot) | Partial (via certbot or modules) | Partial (via certbot or modules) |
| CI/CD | Very easy integration | Ideal for microservices | Used for high-load balancing | Requires manual steps, integration possible | Requires manual steps, integration possible |
| Complexity | Low, beginner-friendly | Medium/high, requires orchestrator knowledge | Medium, more complex configs | Medium, rich ecosystem | Medium, often bloated configs |
| Performance | Good, but not top-tier | Good | Excellent, optimized for load balancing | Excellent | Average |
| Best Use Case | Local development, quick MVPs | Docker/Kubernetes, microservices | High-load systems, load balancing | Universal choice for web and proxy | Static site hosting, legacy systems |
Who Is It For?
🔹 Caddy
Ideal for:
July 2, 2025
Hi friends! Today, we’re diving into the world of automation and deploying n8n — a powerful workflow automation tool. We’ll install it in Docker, and use HAProxy as a reliable reverse proxy to expose it to the internet.
This guide is created especially for beginners. We’ll go step by step, explaining every command so you not only do it, but also understand how everything works.
Why do we even need HAProxy?
You could just expose n8n’s ports to the internet, right? Yes, but that’s unsafe and inconvenient. HAProxy acts as both a guard and a dispatcher:
June 21, 2025
In our series of articles on proxy servers, we’ve already discussed Nginx, a versatile tool combining the roles of a web server and a reverse proxy. Today, we’ll take a look at HAProxy (High Availability Proxy) — a specialized solution focused on a single but extremely important task: high-performance load balancing and ensuring high availability.
What is HAProxy?
HAProxy is free, open-source software that acts as a load balancer and reverse proxy for both TCP and HTTP protocols. It is designed to handle very large volumes of simultaneous connections and is a key component for building highly available and scalable web applications and services. HAProxy is often used as the “brain” in front of a group of servers, distributing incoming traffic among them.
June 19, 2025
In today’s internet-driven world, where data constantly travels between millions of devices, it’s often not enough to establish a direct connection — you may need a “middleman.” That’s where a proxy server comes in. It acts as a bridge between you (the client) and the destination resource (server), handling network requests on your behalf. Understanding how proxies work is critical for network security, optimization, and access management.
What is a Proxy Server?
A proxy server (from the English proxy — representative, intermediary) is a server in a computer network that acts as an intermediary between a user (client) and other internet servers. All client requests go through the proxy first, which then forwards them to the destination server. Responses from the destination server also return to the proxy first before being sent back to the client.
