What is the difference between an API Gateway and a Service Mesh in microservices?

• API Gateway: An API Gateway acts as an entry point for client requests, routing

them to the appropriate microservices. It handles authentication, rate limiting, load

balancing, and response aggregation.

Example: An API Gateway could route a request for placing an order to both the

Order Service and Payment Service.

• Service Mesh: A service mesh manages communication between microservices

themselves. It provides service discovery, traffic management, security, and

monitoring.

Example: A service mesh like Istio helps microservices communicate securely and

ensures traffic routing, retries, and circuit breaking without changing application code.