See the whole distribution in Tableau

Raincloud is a free viz extension that shows each distribution's shape (the cloud), its summary (a box plot) and every record (the rain), in a Rows × Columns grid.

Download raincloud.trex Try the live demo

Free and open source (MIT) · Tableau 2024.2 or later · nothing to install

Quick start

Three steps, about a minute.

Download
raincloud.trex, a small manifest file that tells Tableau where the extension lives.
Add it in Tableau
Show Me → Viz Extensions → Access Local Viz Extensions, pick the file, then follow the prompts.
Drag fields
A measure to Value and a row ID to Detail (one dot per record). Optionally a dimension to Rows.

Then fine-tune it with Format Extension, below the tiles on the Marks card. On Tableau Cloud or Server, an admin first adds https://okhammahko.github.io to the site's extension allow list.

Make it yours

A few of the looks you can switch to in Format Extension.

Bimodal distribution with stacked dots — **Dot plot rain**Stacked dots reveal two humps a box plot hides.

Normal distribution with a strip of dots — **Strip rain**A compact row of dots, for many rows.

Right-skewed distribution drawn as a histogram — **Histogram cloud**Bins instead of a smooth curve show the long tail.

Bimodal distribution with dots coloured by sub-group — **Colour by group**Put a dimension on Colour; a sub-group explains the humps.

One cloud per sub-group, overlaid — **Split cloud**One cloud per colour, overlaid.

Three raincloud rows: normal, bimodal, right-skewed — **Rows and columns**Up to three dimensions on Rows and two on Columns, like Tableau's shelves.

Outliers handledThe axis is cut automatically at the whiskers plus 5%, so a few extreme values don't squash everything else. A badge shows what's off-axis; click it to show all.

Also included

Median, mean and P5/P95 markers with values, in the field's own number format.
Native Tableau tooltips, highlighting and selection on every dot; the workbook's font.
Entire view, fit width, fit height or standard sizing; shared or independent axes across panels.
Your data stays in Tableau: the extension draws inside the worksheet and sends nothing anywhere.