API Gateway vs Load balancer in distributed systems

In microservices Architecture, both API Gateway and Load balancers play a crucial part in distribution of traffic.

But there are some major differences.

1) API Gateway can handle a large number of tasks including mainly:

i) Rate Limiting

ii) Channeling traffic to proper bounded contexts/services.

iii) Authentication

etc.

While load balancers mainly distribute the loads amidst the servers depending upon capacity.

Here you will get a proper understanding in the below illustrations of how they differ from each other.