Best canal boat tour in AMS?

First of all, in Amsterdam it’s a canal cruise you go on, not a riverboat cruise. The canals in Amsterdam are much much much smaller than the river Seine in Paris and as a result the boats used for the canal cruises are much smaller compared to the Vedettes de Paris.
There are several companies out there that offer these canal cruises. The differences between them have to do with the type of commentary they give, live or recorded. And whether the boat is fully enclosed or (partially) open.
My preference, even in winter, would be to go on a smaller open boat with live commentary.
But your preferences could be different from mine, so which company is best for you is a bit difficult to say without information about your preferences.

Duly noted dutch_traveler, have changed the terminology in my post title. I have visited Amsterdam 6 times, but never have done a canal boat cruise. The boat size is not important (although smaller would of course be nicer), live commentary is preferred, and we would also rather be outside unless of course it is raining. We just don't want to have to choose one that includes drinks or other fanfare such as the ones listed on TripAdvisor.

Any suggestions for specific companies to look into, or what is the best way to go about it? We'll arrive (no jet lag) in the late morning and would like to do the canal boat cruise in the afternoon.

We are flying blind on this one since the Rick Steves guidebook is so outdated, we don't know where to search first!

It really isn’t necessary to book a canal cruise in advance. There are lots of companies out there and they mostly dock near the central train station. You can walk up to one you like the look of, pay and board. Each company will have signs saying what type of commentary they offer. The ones that have live commentary will clearly say so. The ones that have recorded commentary won’t say so, they will advertise something like “commentary in 15 languages!!”
If you want to go for a personal experience, go with Those Dam Boat Guys”. Be careful though, they do allow people to bring their own drinks and smokes on board, so you could share your canal cruise with people smoking weed. https://www.thosedamboatguys.com/#new-page

We enjoyed a small boat canal cruise with Captain Dave. The boat was once owned by the Dutch Royal family. it is enclosed, with a few seats open in back. We went early in the morning, and the canals were so peaceful. He also provided very good information on the buildings and history.

I’m sure captain Dave doesn’t mind that his customers believe his boat was once owned by the Dutch royal family, but that isn’t true.
The boat was commissioned by the Municipal Port of Amsterdam and was owned and used by them between 1928 and 2015.
See here; https://captaindaveamsterdam.com/the-boat/

We did a canal cruise with Those Damm Boat Guys this past July. Small, open boat with live commentary and 8 people. But, it was raining and we all got wet even with the umbrellas that were provided. We had fun anyways, but if raining go for the glass top.