Best Streaming Platforms To Watch Documentaries

The world can be better understood through documentaries. They allow you to gain insight into complex issues and introduce individuals to new people who stimulate new ways of thinking. The most influential films have the capacity to alter public policy and even resist the status quo. Documentaries come in all shapes and sizes, but there's a streaming service out there for you. Here are seven of the best streaming platforms for documentary lovers.

1. Paramount+

Paramount+, one of the most rapidly expanding streaming services, has an extensive library of documentaries despite its more well-known episodes and films. Documentaries about music, as well as those about health, politics, society, and entertainment, are plentiful on this platform. Documentaries like Console Wars, An Inconvenient Truth, and 76 Days can all be found on Paramount+.

Paramount+ has a number of pricing tiers, with the ad-supported Essential plan starting at just $4.99 per month. The Premium plan costs $9.99 per month and includes commercial-free viewing, and the Paramount+/Showtime plan, which costs up to $14.99 a month and includes access to Showtime content, respectively.

2. Max

Max has benefited from HBO's long history of producing high-quality documentaries. The Streamable concurs with a recent survey that found Max to be the top streaming service for these types of factual stories, including "Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind," "Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals," "Hoop Dreams," and "Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief."

Docuseries including "Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed," "House of Hammer," "The Story of Late Night," and "Diana"  are now available on Max thanks to the inclusion of various Discovery and CNN programs.

3. Amazon Prime Video

If you're seeking the best online streaming service to watch documentaries, Amazon Prime Video is another option to consider. This site not only has its own extensive library of fictional content but also provides a wide selection of high-quality documentaries, many of which are exclusive to the service.

All In: The Fight for Democracy and Generation Wealth are two of the best documentaries available on Amazon Prime Video. Numerous documentaries available here examine contemporary issues in government and culture.

When you sign up for Amazon Prime, which costs $14.99 a month, you also gain access to Prime Video at no additional cost. It is also available as a separate service, for which you will be charged $8.99 monthly.

4. Hulu

Favored by celebrity biographers and industry insiders, Hulu offers popular documentaries like Free Solo, about solo mountain climbers, and Fyre Fraud, about the disastrous 2017 Fyre Festival. The service also has some that the whole family may enjoy, like the classic nature documentary March of the Penguins.

The streaming service has several movies and documentaries based on popular culture subjects like musicians, actors, and directors. The First Monday in May, Dior and I, and McQueen are just a few of the fashion-focused documentaries available on Hulu.

Hulu has a free ad-supported tier for $7.99 a month, but it also has apps for just about every media streaming device out there. Only those who pay for the $ 14-a-month ad-free service will be able to access offline downloads and a few 4K streams.

5. Netflix

There are a number of Oscar-winning documentaries available on Netflix. You can catch excellent documentaries, including "American Factory," "Icarus," "Fyre," "13th," and Quincy," on this platform. Fans of the sport of mountain climbing may also like "The Dawn Wall."

If you're into true crime, there are also some excellent documentaries on Netflix, such as "Making a Murderer" and "Tiger King." Netflix is also taking measures to ensure that it is the sole owner of many of these documentaries, so they can be on the platform for years to come.

Sign up for a Netflix account starting at only $6.99 a month.

6. History Vault

You can watch long-form docuseries and documentaries like "America: The Story of Us," "Ancient Discoveries," and "Mysteries of the Bible" on History Vault, which you won't find on the History channel's prime-time programming. History Vault doesn't support ads, allows for offline downloads on Apple devices, and has apps for many mobile platforms and video streaming devices.

History Vault is the best on-demand video streaming service if you like documentaries on military history. The History Channel offers a wide variety of educational and informational programs for a reasonable price of only $4.99/month.

7. Curiosity Stream

Out of CuriosityStream's 3,000 total titles, 900 are exclusive to the service. Documentaries in the fields of history, children, science, nature, society,  lifestyle, and technology are currently available on the service.

Among the more prominent documentaries are  "Empire of the Tsars" by the BBC, "Favorite Places" by Stephen Hawking, "Dream the Future," "Out of the Cradle: The Story of Human Origins,"  "Light on Earth" by David Attenborough, and "Amazing Dinoworld."

In addition to documentaries like "Cheetah: Beating the Odds," "Monkey Mayhem," "Sloth Bear: Birth of a Prince, and " "These Birds Were Made for Walking," CuriosityStream has created more than fifty original programs about natural history that are sure to fascinate viewers. Sign up to access thousands of documentaries for as little as $4.99  a month. This comes with a 7-day free trial.

The Bottom Line

If you're looking for the greatest documentaries to watch now, these seven are the best place to start.  Enjoy!