Best Streaming Services for Documentary Movies
Documentaries offer an important window into the world around us. They can help us understand difficult topics or meet people who help us think differently. The most powerful films can even change public policy or push back against powerful corporations. No matter what style of documentary you prefer, there’s a streaming service sure to keep you entertained and educated.
Best for Documentaries
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The Streamable’s Choice
Max
Max benefits from many years of excellent documentaries created specifically for HBO. A recent survey of all the major streaming services ranked it as the best service for these true-life tales, and The Streamable agrees.
Some great titles worth checking out include “Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind,” “Hoop Dreams,” “Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals,” and “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief.”
Max got a boost in true-life stories with the addition of several Discovery and CNN titles, so viewers can now watch docuseries like “House of Hammer,” “Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed,” “Diana,” and “The Story of Late Night.”
Pros:
- Deep documentary library
- Quality is uniformly high
- Tackles challenging, adult topics
- Wide variety
- Offline viewing
Cons:
- Documentaries added more slowly than some other services
- Higher price point
- Not many Academy Award-winning docs
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Netflix
Netflix has a truly incredible documentary lineup, including several Oscar-winners. You’ll see great docs like “Icarus,” “American Factory,” “13th,” “Fyre,” and “Quincy.” Fans of mountain climbing will get a kick out of “The Dawn Wall.”
Netflix also has some sensational docu-series like “Tiger King” and “Making a Murderer.”
Netflix is also making sure it owns many of these documentaries, so they’ll never leave the service. This a strong, strong choice for any documentary lover.
Pros:
- Exclusive titles
- New documentaries arrive regularly
- Wide variety of topics
- Includes many recent Best Documentary winners
- Netflix docs often become “water cooler” favorites
Cons:
- Can be hard to identify quality
- Some high-profile docs rotate out of library
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Hulu
While Disney+ may be saddled with content restrictions, its sister service is free to tackle more daunting subjects. Hulu offers a wide variety of documentaries including “Far From The Tree,” “Born to Play,” “Collective,” “Minding the Gap,” “I Am Not Your Negro,” and “Honeyland.” “Fyre Fraud” is a necessary companion piece if you’ve seen Netflix’s “Fyre.”
A special treat is “Too Funny to Fail: The Life & Death of The Dana Carvey Show.” Another high-profile winner is “WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn.”
Hulu appears to be gaining traction with its original, exclusive documentaries, which suggests they’ll be a strong competitor in years to come.
Pros:
- Interesting topics too hot for Disney+
- Exclusive films on buzzy topics
- Can bundle with Disney+ and ESPN+ for discount
Cons:
- Library automatically blunted with some titles over at Disney+
- Often plays “catch-up” with documentaries on topics previously made famous by Netflix
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Disney+
Disney's documentary section tends to fall into two main categories: those films about Disney-related topics, and nature films.
The Disney-focused docs are truly special if you’re a fan of the source material.
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“Waking Sleeping Beauty” shows how the studio pulled out of its 1980s funk to produce blockbusters like “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty & The Beast” and “The Lion King.”
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“Howard” gives an inside look at the life of Howard Ashman, a lyricist behind many of Disney’s most beloved songs.
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“The Boys” is a surprisingly funny, touching portrait of the Sherman brothers - two bickering songwriters who gave us the great music of “Mary Poppins,” “The Jungle Book,” and “Bedknobs and Broomsticks.”
When it comes to nature, Disney has a rich library of high quality films, and that’s bolstered by the impressive National Geographic collection. Whether you feel like staring at monkeys or dolphins or penguins, you can spend hours traveling the world from your couch.
If you must see one Disney+ documentary, check out “Free Solo,” the Best Documentary Academy Award winner about Alex Honnold, who scaled the 3,200-foot El Capitán in Yosemite National Park without a rope.
You won’t find many Disney+ documentaries about adult topics, however. That somewhat blunts the service’s effectiveness.
Pros:
- Family-friendly library
- Great for fans of Disney
- Excellent nature films
- Exclusive films will remain on service
Cons:
- Adult topics not featured
- Limited library outside its two primary topics
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Paramount+ with SHOWTIME
True to its premium cable roots, Showtime isn’t afraid to tackle documentary subjects that skew more adult. You’ll find titles like “When We Were Kings,” “Kobe Bryant's Muse,” “Marley,” “Amy,” “Belushi,” and “Mad Hot Ballroom.” The titles do change, but the service always keeps a solid roster.
The service is also home to some great docu-series like “The Comedy Store,” and “The Fourth Estate.”
Many of the documentaries you’ll see here do have a harder edge, so be warned that this isn’t a very kid-friendly group.
Pros:
- Strong library of documentaries about controversial figures and difficult topics
- Original, exclusive titles
Cons:
- Library not as robust as others
- Slow to add new titles
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Peacock
Peacock’s rotating library does include some A+ documentaries, like “Murderball,” “I Am Big Bird,” “Spellbound,” “Perfect Bid: The Contestant Who Knew Too Much,” and “Good Hair” with Chris Rock. There are lots and lots of musical documentaries as well.
As a bonus, almost every documentary here is available on the ad-supported free tier.
The library isn’t especially deep, but the selection is solid.
Pros:
- Rotating library features some excellent films
- Most docs available on free tier
Cons:
- Frustrating user interface
- Films do rotate out of library
- Almost no exclusives
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Apple TV+
With Apple TV+, you can expect high production value and solid storytelling. There are some really excellent documentaries here, including “The Year Earth Changed,” “Beastie Boys Story,” “The Elephant Queen,” “Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry,” and “Who Are You, Charlie Brown?”
Many of the service’s documentaries focus on music or nature, showing off the technical abilities you’d expect from Apple.
Pros:
- Extremely high quality
- Disciplined storytelling
- Low price point
Cons:
- Thinnest library of any service
- New films slow to arrive
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Free Option
Tubi
The free Tubi service has a surprisingly strong roster of docs, although you do have to sit through ads.
Standout films include these titles that score over 9/10 on IMDB:
- Harsukh
- The Curators of Dixon School
- Sustenance
- The Day I Had to Grow Up
- Wild & Woolly: An Elephant And His Sheep
- Blood Line: The Life and Times of Brian Deegan
- Between the Shades
- Everything Is Forever
Pros:
- Free
- Very highly rated films
- Interesting niche topics that may not be covered by bigger services
Cons:
- Have to watch ads
- Documentaries are lower-profile
- Hard to discern quality
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Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video is the equivalent of a documentary garage sale. Though you will find some diamonds in the rough, they are surrounded by mounds of garbage.
One major negative is Amazon’s very low bar for content, which means the quality varies wildly. You may suddenly find yourself watching a documentary from a far-right political organization or a religious institution. Users who tread carefully can find some decent options, however.
Some standouts include “Never Surrender” (about the legacy of “Galaxy Quest”), “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room,” and “Dear Zachary: A Letter To A Son About His Father” (often cited as the most heartbreaking film you’ll ever see).
It is frustrating that Prime Video’s library rotates on a regular basis, so you’ll have to dig anew every so often.
Pros:
- Huge library
- Wide variety of topics
Cons:
- Almost no original/exclusive documentaries
- Quality films rotate off the service
- “Documentaries” sometimes turn out to be outright political propaganda
- Terrible UI mixes the good movies with the bad
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Curiosity Stream
CuriosityStream’s library contains 3,000 titles, 900 of them being exclusive original titles. The service currently provides its viewers documentaries in the following categories: History, Kids, Lifestyle, Nature, Science, Society, and Technology.
A few notable titles include Stephen Hawking’s “Favorite Places,” David Attenborough’s “Light on Earth,” “Dream the Future,” “Empire of the Tsars” (BBC’s history series), “Out of the Cradle” (human origins), and “Amazing Dinoworld.”
Natural history buffs will enjoy CuriosityStream’s originals as well such as “Cheetah: Beating the Odds,” “These Birds Were Made for Walking,” “Monkey Mayhem,” “Sloth Bear: Birth of a Prince,” and about 50+ more.
Pros:
- Content library has thousands of titles
- Exclusive originals that are actually interesting
- Documentaries designed for kids
- Low and affordable price
- HD and 4K quality
- Available worldwide
Cons:
- Caption options are limited in the U.S.
- Language options are also limited
- Doesn’t have a wide range of genres compared to Netflix or Hulu
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Free Option
Kanopy
Kanopy has a collection of 30,000+ films in genres like dramas, comedies, biopics, and more. Popular titles include the 2017 Best Picture winner “Moonlight,” the Oscar-nominated documentary “I Am Not Your Negro,” and “The Facebook Dilemma.”
The service also has major television networks like HISTORY, A&E, and PBS.
Pros:
- Completely free with no ads
- Thousands of on-demand titles
- Kid-friendly subscription option (unlimited viewing)
- Gives ability to share/embed clips and playlists
- There is no limit on simultaneous streaming
Cons:
- Only available for members of participating libraries and for students or professors from selected college universities
- Viewers can only watch 10 titles each month with the use of Play Credits (however, there are some Credit-Free movies)
- Doesn’t support offline downloads on mobile devices
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MagellanTV
Viewers have access to 3,000 high-quality documentaries and series that cover a variety of genres such as biography, space, science & tech, mind & body, earth, travel & adventure, nature, ancient history, early modern, current history, war & military, true crime, historical drama, and art & culture.
Among its library there are interesting titles like “Life Is One: Growing Up Sunbear,” “Hubble Eye in The Sky 4K,” “Customs,” and even travel guide programming like “Germany From Above,” “Spain From Above,” and “Italy From Above.”
Pros:
- Rich selection of documentaries
- Lots of 4K content
- Reasonable price and no ads
Cons:
- There are a limited amount of accessibility features
- Not a lot of major award-winning or well-known documentaries
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HISTORY Vault
The HISTORY Channel’s streaming service offers a lot of exclusive content on HISTORY Vault at a refreshingly low price. For instance, much of the video content you don’t see on the channel’s prime-time lineup anymore is included on this platform.
This includes long-form documentaries and docu-series such as “America: The Story of Us,” “Ancient Discoveries,” and “Mysteries of the Bible.”
Pros:
- Tons of historical documentaries
- Many original series and shows
- Available on many platforms
Cons:
- Only available in the United States
- Unable to download videos on Android devices
- Not enough accessibility options
