This site builds full calculators for two models — Binary and Unilevel — because between them they cover the core ideas most other structures are built from: matched ratios, spillover, and depth-based payouts. Here's a short, neutral look at a few other shapes you'll run into, without a calculator attached to any of them.
Instead of Binary's always-two-leg structure, a matrix fixes both how many people you can recruit directly (width — often 3 or 5) and how many levels deep you earn from (depth). Once your width fills up, extra recruits spill into the next open slot below you — the same spillover idea Binary uses, just inside a fixed grid instead of two legs.
A variant of Unilevel that pays by leadership generation instead of a fixed number of levels — each time someone in your line reaches a qualifying rank, that starts a new "generation" you can earn from, so your effective depth tracks how deep your leaders go, not a flat schedule.
Many companies combine elements — Binary-style matching for the first tier, Unilevel-style overrides above it, for example. A plan that doesn't cleanly match Binary or Unilevel is often blending pieces of both rather than using a wholly different mechanic.
Distributors climb a series of ranks ("steps") based on personal sales volume and team-building. Reaching a qualifying rank — often called Director or Executive — triggers a "breakaway": that distributor's team splits off from their sponsor's downline and starts operating as its own commission group.
This changes how everyone above them gets paid, too — the sponsor's commission on that team shifts from a straightforward downline override to a separate leadership bonus instead, since the team no longer counts as part of their direct group. That's the real difference from every shape above: Binary, Unilevel, Matrix, and Generational all pay based on where you sit in a structure; stair-step/breakaway pays based on which rank-triggered group you currently belong to, which can change more than once as people advance.
These four cover the shapes you're most likely to run into — real plans also have their own regional or company-specific variations beyond what's listed here.