Plate beamsplitter consists of thin window. When using it, the two partial beams travel different optical paths. And the optical paths are decided on the thickness of plates and the incident angle.   

Cube beamsplitters are constructed by cementing two right angle prisms together with the appropriate interference coating on hypotenuse. The absorption loss to the coating is minimal. Transmission and reflection approach 50% (average) though the output is partially polarized.

Polarizing cube beamsplitters split randomly polarized beams into two orthogonal, linearly polarized components: S-polarized light is reflected at a 90 deg angle while P-polarized light is transmitted. Each beamsplitter consists of a pair of precision high tolerance right angle prisms cemented together with a dielectric coating on the hypotenuse of one of the prisms. A multi-layer antireflective coating has been applied to each face of the beamsplitter in order to produce maximum transmission efficiency.

By adding a wedge and with partial reflective coating on one of the leaning surfaces of penta prisms, it can be used as a beamsplitter. It is often used in plumb level,  surveying, alignment, rangefinding and optical tooling.