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Porter's Five Forces Generator

Name an industry, rate how hard each of Porter's five forces presses on profit, tick the determinants that apply, and get a five forces diagram plus a written analysis with an overall reading and strategy questions. Honest templates, no AI. Free, no sign-up.

Which industry?

Rate each force from 1 to 5, and say why

Threat of new entrants

How easily can a new firm enter and compete? Barriers to entry keep this low.

Checklist — tick what is true of this industry

Bargaining power of suppliers

How much can suppliers, including labor, raise prices or cut quality?

Checklist — tick what is true of this industry

Bargaining power of buyers

How much can customers push prices down or demand more for the same price?

Checklist — tick what is true of this industry

Threat of substitutes

Can customers meet the same need another way?

Checklist — tick what is true of this industry

Rivalry among existing competitors

How hard do existing competitors fight over customers?

Checklist — tick what is true of this industry

Overall reading

Rate all five forces to see the overall reading.

Reading

—

Average rating

—

Strongest force

Diagram

Porter's five forces diagramFive boxes: new entrants above, substitutes below, suppliers left and buyers right, each with an arrow to competitive rivalry in the middle. Each box shows a pressure rating from 1 to 5.Porter's Five ForcesThreat of new entrantsNot ratedBargaining power of suppliersNot ratedBargaining power of buyersNot ratedThreat of substitutesNot ratedRivalry among existingcompetitorsNot ratedShading shows pressure on industry profit, 1 (very low, green) to 5 (very high, red). Framework: M. E. Porter, Harvard Business Review, 1979 and 2008.

Your five forces write-up

10 parts still to write

Porter's Five Forces Analysis

Framework: M. E. Porter, “How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy”, Harvard Business Review, 1979; updated in 2008

Overall Reading

To write: Name the industry. Porter's analysis applies to one line of business — “online grocery in the UK”, not “retail”.

Reading: Rate all five forces to see a reading

ForcePressure on profitChecklist items true
Threat of new entrantsNot rated0 of 8
Bargaining power of suppliersNot rated0 of 7
Bargaining power of buyersNot rated0 of 7
Threat of substitutesNot rated0 of 5
Rivalry among existing competitorsNot rated0 of 7

Tip: A teaching convention, not Porter's own formula: an average of 2.0 or less reads as attractive, 3.5 or more as unattractive, and anything between as mixed. Porter argued that the strongest force or forces set an industry's profit potential, so read the forces rated 4 or 5 before the average.

Threat of new entrants

Pressure on profit: Not rated

To write: Explain which barriers to entry exist (scale, capital, brand, channels, regulation) and whether any newcomer has recently entered.

Bargaining power of suppliers

Pressure on profit: Not rated

To write: Name the main suppliers or inputs, including labor, and explain how easily the industry could switch or do without them.

Bargaining power of buyers

Pressure on profit: Not rated

To write: Say who the buyers are, how concentrated they are, and how easily they can switch or push prices down.

Threat of substitutes

Pressure on profit: Not rated

To write: Name the substitutes — different products that meet the same need — and compare their price and performance with the industry's.

Rivalry among existing competitors

Pressure on profit: Not rated

To write: Describe the competitors, how they compete (price, quality, service), how fast the industry is growing, and how hard it is to leave.

Implications for Strategy

Tip: Porter describes strategy as building defenses against the forces or finding a position where they are weaker. Answer these for the forces you rated 4 or 5.

  1. 1.

    [To write: Which force presses hardest on profit, and what exactly causes it?]

  2. 2.

    [To write: Where in the industry — which segment, customer or product — is that force weaker?]

  3. 3.

    [To write: What could the organization do to defend against it, or to change the force in its favor?]

  4. 4.

    [To write: Which trend could make a force stronger or weaker in the next few years?]

How to Use the Porter's Five Forces Generator

  1. 1. Name one industry. Porter's analysis fits a single line of business — online grocery retail in the UK, not “retail” and not one company.
  2. 2. Rate each force from 1 to 5. The scale is pressure on industry profit: 1 means the force barely limits profit, 5 means it limits it severely. Open the checklist under each force to see the conditions that make it strong, and tick the ones that are true.
  3. 3. Write why. One point per line. The first line of each force's notes appears in its box on the diagram, and all of it goes into the write-up.
  4. 4. Export. Download the diagram as SVG or PNG, copy the analysis into your document, or print the page.

The Five Forces

ForceThe question it asksStronger when
Threat of new entrantsCan a newcomer enter and take profit?Barriers to entry are low: little capital, weak scale advantages, easy access to channels
Bargaining power of suppliersCan suppliers, including labor, claim more of the profit?Few suppliers, no substitute inputs, costly to switch
Bargaining power of buyersCan customers push prices down?Few large buyers, standard products, low switching costs
Threat of substitutesCan customers meet the need another way?A different product offers a better price and performance
Rivalry among existing competitorsHow hard do current firms fight?Many equal rivals, slow growth, high fixed and exit costs

Michael Porter introduced the framework in “How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy”, Harvard Business Review (March–April 1979), developed it in his 1980 book Competitive Strategy, and restated it in “The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy”, Harvard Business Review (January 2008). His argument is that the five forces together determine the profit potential of an industry, and that strategy means either building defenses against the forces or finding a position where they are weaker.

How the Overall Reading Works

Porter did not score the forces, so any number is a teaching convention. This tool averages your five ratings and reads 2.0 or less as attractive, 3.5 or more as unattractive, and anything between as mixed. It also lists the strongest force and every force rated 4 or 5, because Porter's point is that a single powerful force can hold an industry's profit down whatever the others look like.

Take online grocery retail in the UK as a classroom example, rated 3 for entrants, 3 for suppliers, 4 for buyers, 2 for substitutes and 5 for rivalry. The average is 3.4, which reads as mixed — yet buyers and rivalry are both rated 4 or 5, and rivalry is the strongest. The average hides what the strategy section has to deal with, which is why the tool reports both. The ratings in that example are illustrative, not research findings.

Common Five Forces Mistakes

  • Analyzing a company. The forces describe the industry's structure and its average profitability. A firm can beat the industry average, but that comes from its strategy, not from the forces.
  • An industry that is too broad. “Food” or “technology” hides forces that differ sharply between segments. Define the industry by the product and the place.
  • Treating substitutes as competitors. A rival sells the same kind of product; a substitute meets the same need in a different way, as video calls substitute for some business travel.
  • Adding forces. Porter treats government, complements, growth and technology as influences on the five forces, not as extra forces. Say how each one changes a force.
  • Describing without concluding. A rating needs a reason, and the analysis needs an implication: where is the industry's profit squeezed, and what can an organization do about it?

Frequently Asked Questions

What are Porter's five forces?
Threat of new entrants, bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of buyers, threat of substitutes, and rivalry among existing competitors. Michael Porter argued that these five pressures together set how much profit firms in an industry can keep.
How do you do a five forces analysis?
Define the industry, then take each force in turn: list the conditions that make it strong or weak, rate it, and back the rating with evidence such as concentration ratios, switching costs, margins, and growth. Finish by asking which force matters most and where in the industry it is weakest.
Does Porter's five forces analyze a company or an industry?
An industry. The forces describe its structure and typical profitability. Applying it to one company mixes up what the industry does to every firm with what the company does for itself, which is why the analysis is framed at industry level.
Is there a sixth force?
Some writers add complementors — firms whose products make yours more valuable — as a sixth force; Brandenburger and Nalebuff made that case in the 1990s. Porter has treated complements, government, and technology as factors that act on the five forces rather than as forces, so check which view your course takes.
How does the generator decide the overall reading?
It averages your five ratings: 2.0 or lower reads as attractive, 3.5 or higher as unattractive, and anything in between as mixed. That is a convention for teaching, not a formula from Porter, so the tool also lists the strongest force and all forces rated 4 or 5.
How do I cite Porter's five forces?
Cite the article you used. In APA 7, the 2008 update is Porter, M. E. (2008). The five competitive forces that shape strategy. Harvard Business Review, 86(1), 78–93. The original is Porter, M. E. (1979). How competitive forces shape strategy. Harvard Business Review, 57(2), 137–145. Use your course's style for a book edition.
Does the generator write the analysis for me?
No. It turns your ratings, ticked checklist items, and notes into a diagram and a structured write-up, with prompts wherever your own explanation is missing. Nothing is generated by AI, and it runs in your browser — nothing you type is uploaded.

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