The overall seismic performance of steel plate shear walls, including unstiffened SPSW, cross-stiffened SPSW, and SPSW with opening, SPSW with slits and holes, under low cyclic loading were tested. Contrastive analyze their hysteretic curve, loading capacity, lateral stiffness, ductility and energy dissipation coefficient. Results indicate that the unstiffened SPSW seem to be with high resistance lateral stiffness and carrying capacity; however its hysteretic curve show pinch effect obviously. When cross-stiffener was set on unstiffened SPSW, the resistance lateral stiffness and loading capacity can be significantly improved. However, the pinch effect of hysteretic curve does not distinctly change. The resistance lateral stiffness and loading capacity of SPSW with holes and slits is lower, however hysteretic curve is full. In addition, the energy dissipation capacity and the phenomenon which the thin steel plate shear wall shows the zero stiffness even negative stiffness at the point of zero displacement under cyclic loading are dramatically improved.