February 2nd, 2021 | Updated on February 19th, 2021
There are multiple ways in which you can watch free documentaries online. You will find enough content on topics like people, science, history, religion, art, etc., provided you know the correct place to look. Here we mention to you some websites that would make your job easy for you.
1. PBS Videos
PBS is a US network with a stream of excellent quality documentaries that you may watch for free. Their content can be sorted into four separate categories.
These are arts and music, food, history and science, and nature. You may also get to watch some non-documentary videos like Drama, Home, and DIY, and public affairs.
All of the videos are free to watch as long as you live in the United States. If you’re outside the US, you’ll need to use a VPN to be able to tune in. We recommend either CyberGhost or ExpressVPN.
2. Snag Films
Snag Films is an app that has something for everyone. It has more than 2000 free documentaries, TV episodes, and original comedy shorts.
However, if you expect the website to have a standard streaming service, you might be in for a rude shock. It has documentaries in categories like Athletes and their triumph, veterans in the Military, before they were stars, etc.
Though we also think that they might be smart to structure their categories such. It makes it easy for the viewer to look for niche-specific documentaries.
3. Documentary Storm
The documentary storm has a defined list of documentary movies compiled from various sources on the internet.
It is probably one of the best places if you wish to see documentaries. All the videos present on site are feature-length films, which means no shorts or mini-documentaries for you.
The categories here are the common ones like Art, biography, conspiracy, environment, crime, politics, money, history, etc. In all, 25 categories give you a variety of options to choose from.
On Documentary storm, you find it easy to see documentaries that are worth a glimpse. Go to the explore tab, you will find the Top 100 documentaries., a list of new arrivals, and a “Surprise Me” feature as well.
On clicking Surprise Me, the website will pick up a random documentary and play it for you. In short, you may get to watch a movie genre that you have no clue about.
4. Films for Action
Films for action has nearly 2000 free documentaries to browse into. You will also find movie trailers and pay per view movies to watch here. It is easy to watch stuff from the site.
Go to the explore tab and filter the documentaries by topic, country, and language. You will also get a chance to watch documentaries in Spanish, German, and Danish.
Films for action does not have ads to support them. Instead, they expect users to donate. These requests can be quite dull, but they are much better than ads coming your way.
5. Documentary Heaven
Documentary heaven is similar to Documentary storm. It finds various documentary videos from the web and displays them on one website.
To see relevant stuff go to the Top 100 tab on top of the page. You could also hit the Browse Documentaries tab and find something to watch. The most common categories are Health, History, and Science.
Apart from these, there are other niches that you may explore. These are spirituality, futurism, and evolution.
6. Popcornflix
Popcorn flix is another excellent site where you can watch free documentaries. At any point, there are around 100 documentaries to watch though this list keeps on getting updated. However, the site is quite tricky to navigate and can be confusing to use.
Popcorn flix has its library of free TV shows and movies, so all documentaries are put together under one category. If you wish to watch something under a particular sub-genre, you would have to do some serious searching.
7. Spread the Word
Just like Snag films, this website provides a list of the best documentary’s sites according to the categories. These are very specific, which means you can narrow down your choice to a list of videos you would like to watch.
Some categories you will find here are consciousness, civil rights, Corporatism, Hidden history, human rights, and media.
Though you do not need an account to watch free documentaries on the Spread the word website, if you sign up, you can share self-made customized playlists with others.
8. The Internet Archive
The internet archive is another right place to watch free documentaries. However, this website does not have a special documentary category. If you need any particular video, you will have to search for it.
9. YouTube
Obviously, you cannot leave YouTube from this list. There are thousands of free documentaries that you may watch on this platform. These could be made by big studios or small independent documentary makers.
You should subscribe to YouTube’s documentary films topic to get access to their best collection. This may give only a few suggestions of what is available on the site, but at the beginning, that is good enough.
10. Use Free Trials on Netflix and Hulu
Some demand streaming apps like Netflix and Hulu have a good collection of documentaries too.
Though these sites are paid, you can subscribe to their free trial. So, just sign up and watch your kind of content. Cancel your subscription before the expiry of the trial, and you are good to go.
