Seata is a distributed transaction solution for microservices that provides consistent, cross-service commits without forcing every team to adopt the same persistence model. Its architecture separates responsibilities into a global coordinator and per-service participants, so business services remain decoupled while transactions are orchestrated centrally. Multiple modes are supported—AT (automatic, SQL-based with undo logs), TCC (try-confirm-cancel), Saga (long-running compensation), and XA—letting architects choose between simplicity, control, and interoperability. The AT mode is notable for minimizing code changes: Seata captures before/after images of SQL updates and can roll back on failure to maintain atomicity across services. Integrations cover common RPC frameworks and registries, enabling drop-in usage within Spring Cloud/Dubbo-style ecosystems.
Features
- Supports multiple transaction models: AT (automatic compensation), TCC, SAGA, and XA
- Integrates with microservices RPC frameworks: Dubbo, Spring Cloud, gRPC, Sofa-RPC, Motan
- Offers high-availability through cluster mode, with scalable computing and pluggable storage (DB, Redis, Raft)
- Easy setup and integration via Spring Boot starter or standalone JAR (seata-all)
- Strong ecosystem with documentation, quickstart guides, and sample code
- Used by enterprise-grade systems, battle-tested in Alibaba's infrastructure operations