Replication Publishing takes too long on SQL Server 2016

Hi all,

I have configured a Merge Replication Publishment on SQL Server 2016.

The Database is just 900MB size.

But the publishment takes very long. The initial runtime is about 40 Minutes.

And the next start (just for differences, and there are none) takes 20 Minutes.

We have configured the same replication previously on SQL Server 2008. And there the DB is much larger and the publishment just takes seconds/few minutes for creating the delta.

Has something changed in the SQL versions, why it takes much longer now?

Are there any hints what can be configured additionally to come back to a shorter runtime for the publishment?

Thanks for any help

Christoph