Field note · July 5, 2026

saas-subscriptions.plan: 4 values, 94.0% in the top three

4 values with 44.3% concentrated in one of them, and what that does to every chart downstream.

1 min read ·Visualization ·visualization practice

Distribution of plan on saas-subscriptions, because every chart built on it inherits this shape.

  • starter — 1,108 rows, 44.3%
  • team — 800 rows, 32.0%
  • business — 442 rows, 17.7%
  • enterprise — 150 rows, 6.0%

The top three take 94.0% between them. With only 4 values there is no tail to worry about, which makes this a genuinely easy column to chart.

sql
select plan,
       count(*)                                      as rows,
       round(100.0 * count(*) / sum(count(*)) over (), 1) as pct,
       round(avg(mrr_usd)::numeric, 2)             as avg_mrr_usd
from saas_subscriptions
group by 1
order by rows desc;

The second column is the one that matters. Share of rows tells you what is common; avg_mrr_usd tells you whether the common thing is the important thing. They disagree more often than not, and a chart that shows only the first is answering the easier question.

Decide what happens to the tail before you plot it. "Other" as an explicit bucket is honest; twelve slivers is not, and neither is silently taking the top eight.