As COVID-19 restrictions lift around the country, people are returning to movie theatres, but they’re also continuing to watch films at home. With the explosive popularity of video streaming services across every content category, it was only a matter of time before documentary streaming services carved out their own niche, too.
Major streaming services, such as Hulu, Netflix, and Prime Video, include documentaries in their vast libraries, but other on-demand services that focus exclusively or (at least largely) on documentaries have popped up to meet the diverse needs of documentary fans. Whether you are after pure entertainment or want to learn something new, there’s a documentary service to satisfy your curiosity and shine a light on the interesting parts of life.
How Much Do Documentary Streaming Services Cost?
Niche documentary streaming services are typically less expensive than full-service on-demand streaming sites, though not by a dramatic margin. For instance, CuriosityStream starts at $2.99 per month, while PBS Documentaries costs $3.99 per month. MagellanTV and Ovid.tv are both $6.99 per month, while GuideDoc is $7.99 per month. Mubi ($10.99 per month) is the most expensive of the documentary- and film-focused streaming services in this roundup.
Mainstream services, such as Hulu ($5.99 per month), Netflix ($8.99 per month), and Prime Video ($8.99 per month) start somewhere in the middle of that range. However, Hulu and Netflix require you to pay for more expensive tiers to get all the best features. For instance, Hulu’s ad-free plan is $11.99 per month and Netflix charges $17.99 per month for its Premium plan, which unlocks 4K content. CuriosityStream is the only niche service that locks functionality behind a more expensive tier; its 4K streaming tier is $9.99 per month. None of the documentary-focused services serve ads, however.
The least expensive option, Kanopy, is completely free with a library card or university email address. If you are after free documentaries and short films, Vimeo may be another option worth exploring. Our roundup of the best free video streaming services has an even broader range of free movies and shows.
Some of the documentary-streaming sites have profit-sharing models that pay filmmakers for the streaming rights to their films. Others pay for the documentaries upfront and keep them in their libraries indefinitely. Still others have their own vault of content, like PBS, which has documentary movies and TV series from 50 years of public broadcasting.
What Can You Watch on Documentary Streaming Services?
Choosing which service to use comes down to what you want to get out of your subscription. Some documentary streaming sites specialize in educational content, while others focus on award-winning films. There are some hybrid documentary streaming apps, like Kanopy, that offer both educational viewing experiences and award-winning entertainment films. If you are after edutainment streaming, The Great Courses is another option for your consideration.
In the streaming wars, content is king. The biggest difference between the subscription services is the size of their respective libraries. Kanopy leads the pack with a collection of more than 30,000 films from its array of high-profile content partners. On the other end of the spectrum is GuideDoc, a prestige documentary subscription service that features hundreds of films chosen because they won or were nominated for major festival awards.
Where Can You Watch Documentary Streaming Services?
Most of the documentary streaming services support just about every platform you can imagine, from web browsers to mobile devices (Android and iOS) to media streaming devices (Apple TV, Chromecast, Fire TV, and Roku). However, not every service supports every media streaming device. PBS Documentaries (which is available only as a Prime Video channel), along with Hulu, Netflix, and Prime Video offer the most complete device support.
All the services we reviewed support at least two simultaneous streams per account, which means that one person can watch on the TV while another can watch via a different device. Kanopy supports unlimited simultaneous streams, which is an excellent feature for large households, but it does not offer unlimited streaming access to its full catalog each month. MagellanTV supports five simultaneous streams per account without any catalog restrictions.
If your internet connection is spotty or you want to watch documentaries on a plane, you’ll want a service that lets you download content for offline viewing. CuriosityStream, MagellanTV, Mubi, Netflix, Ovid.tv, PBS Documentaries, and Prime Video let you download media from their services at no extra charge. Hulu makes you pay for its ad-free tier to get this capability.
Community Features, Parental Controls, and Accessibility
Some of the streaming services we reviewed offer extra content, usually in the form of community-building measures, articles, or blog posts. MagellanTV offers a wealth of information about an array of topics related to the content it offers, with many articles about science, culture, and history. GuideDoc and Ovid.tv have blogs that highlight the services’ new content and recommend related programs. Ovid.tv’s website has interviews with filmmakers, along with other articles and film reviews. Mubi has the most complete range of supporting materials and the most active community discussion boards of any of the services. Kanopy has a rating system for films and shows, so you can become a critic.
Although parental control tools are not common for the category, given the nature of the content, Kanopy includes a separate section just for kids called “Kanopy Kids” that features documentaries and educational programming for children. Netflix, as it has a broader range of content, offers top-notch, profile-based, parental control tools.
All of the services in this roundup offer closed captions for most of their content, but not all of them let you customize them or choose a language other than English. Hulu, Netflix, and Prime Video lead the others in accessibility features because they support audio descriptions.
