Other than Arca-Swiss style plates, which are not standardized and can come in wide variety of sizes from various makers, the most common type of QD plate with standardized dimensions is probably the Manfrotto RC2 plate and receivers.

Arca-Swiss plates come in several widths and lengths. The most common width in the U.S. is about 1.5 inches (38.1 mm). In Europe they're almost all 35mm wide. In Asia both sizes can be found in large enough numbers to make compatibility more of an issue there.

Length isn't as critical, as the design is made to allow the plate to slide through the receiver. However, if one uses "safety bolts" on the ends of the bottom of the plate to prevent unintentional disconnection of receiver and plate, the shape of the receiver below the center channel may not allow certain shorter plates to be used with longer receivers. Alternately, very long plates will be able to slide out of a very short receiver before the safety bolts engage with the stops on the edge of the receiver.

As long as the width is the same and the beveled angles on the edge of the plate are close enough to the angles of the groove on the receiver, plates from one maker and receivers from another maker may be used together. The exact angles of the beveled edges that run along the sides of the long dimension do vary from one brand/maker to the next. Slight differences between the angles of the plate and the angles of a receiver can usually be ignored, but there are cases where a plate from one maker and a receiver from another maker don't line up well enough to be used together. When considering using an Arca-Swiss style plate from one maker and an Arca-Swiss style receiver from another maker, one should always test the compatibility in advance of "mission critical" usage.

Many Manfrotto products are offered with RC2 connectors, but there are also a plethora of third party heads, plates, receivers, and knock-offs of other Manfrotto products that use the same connector.

Manfrotto now offers the 200PL-PRO plate that is compatible both with RC2 receivers and most 38mm wide Arca-Swiss clamps.