SSL Termination vs SSL Passthrough

Developers should implement SSL Termination when building scalable web applications to reduce server load, centralize SSL certificate management, and enable advanced traffic inspection and routing meets developers should use ssl passthrough when backend applications need to process ssl/tls encryption directly, such as in environments requiring client certificate authentication or when using specific ssl configurations not supported by the load balancer. Here's our take.

SSL Termination

Nice Pick

Developers should implement SSL Termination when building scalable web applications to reduce server load, centralize SSL certificate management, and enable advanced traffic inspection and routing

Pros

• It's essential for high-traffic websites, microservices architectures, and environments requiring content-based routing or security scanning of encrypted traffic
• Related to: load-balancing, reverse-proxy

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

SSL Passthrough

Developers should use SSL Passthrough when backend applications need to process SSL/TLS encryption directly, such as in environments requiring client certificate authentication or when using specific SSL configurations not supported by the load balancer

Pros

• It is ideal for high-security applications where end-to-end encryption must be preserved, like financial services or healthcare systems, but it increases backend server load as they handle SSL processing
• Related to: load-balancing, ssl-termination

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

The Verdict

Use SSL Termination if: You want it's essential for high-traffic websites, microservices architectures, and environments requiring content-based routing or security scanning of encrypted traffic and can live with specific tradeoffs depend on your use case.

Use SSL Passthrough if: You prioritize it is ideal for high-security applications where end-to-end encryption must be preserved, like financial services or healthcare systems, but it increases backend server load as they handle ssl processing over what SSL Termination offers.

The Bottom Line

SSL Termination wins

Developers should implement SSL Termination when building scalable web applications to reduce server load, centralize SSL certificate management, and enable advanced traffic inspection and routing