Standard transactional publication

Appropriate for topologies in which all data at the Subscriber is read-only (transactional replication does not enforce this at the Subscriber).

Standard transactional publications are created by default when using Transact-SQL or Replication Management Objects (RMO). When using the New Publication Wizard, they are created by selecting Transactional publication on the Publication Type page.

For more information about creating publications, see Publishing Data and Database Objects.

Transactional publication that supports updating subscriptions in a hierarchical topology

The characteristics of this publication type are:

• One Publisher services multiple Subscribers.
  
• The same row can be changed at multiple locations at the same time. Any conflicts are resolved automatically.
  
• This topology is best suited for Subscribers that make only occasional changes.
  

For more information see Updatable Subscriptions for Transactional Replication.

Transactional publication in a peer-to-peer topology

The characteristics of this publication type are:

• Each location has identical data and acts as both a Publisher and Subscriber.
  
• The same row can be changed only at one location at a time.
  
• This topology is best suited for server environments requiring high availability and read scalability.
  

For more information, see Peer-to-Peer Transactional Replication.