Most people don’t think about PDF tools until they desperately need one. You’re at an airport, or rushing to send a contract, or trying to merge visa documents before a deadline. You search, you click the first result that looks professional, you pay what seems like a small one-time fee. Then, a week later, your bank statement tells a very different story.
That exact scenario is what led to the creation of Riqa, a pay-per-use PDF tool built by someone who got burned by a fake one-time payment that quietly rolled into a $50 USD per month subscription. The response wasn’t a complaint post. It was a product. Riqa launched this week on Product Hunt, and the founding story alone is worth reading.
The premise is simple. You buy a pack of credits, use them when you need to, and the credits never expire. No monthly billing. No surprise charges. No fine print hiding a trial period. That kind of pricing transparency is rarer than it should be in software.
What Riqa Can Do With Your PDFs
Merge PDFs
Combine up to five PDF files into a single document for 2 credits. You can drag to reorder the files before merging, and the output preserves all original formatting, fonts, and images without re-rendering anything. Useful for anyone assembling multi-part submissions, reports, or application packs.
Protect and Unlock PDFs
Riqa uses 256-bit AES encryption, the same standard used by financial institutions, to password-protect any PDF for 3 credits. The Unlock tool removes password protection for the same cost, as long as you already know the password. That last part is worth noting: Riqa can’t bypass a password you don’t have, and that’s by design.
Split, Compress, and Convert
Split a PDF into custom page ranges or extract non-consecutive pages, all for 3 credits. Compress reduces file size using three quality presets, useful when emailing documents or uploading to forms with size limits. Image to PDF converts JPG and PNG files into a single document for just 2 credits, supporting up to 10 images per operation.
Sign PDF
Add an electronic signature by typing your name, drawing freehand, or uploading a PNG of your signature. Riqa embeds the signer name, a server-recorded timestamp, and the signature method into the PDF metadata as an audit record. It costs 4 credits and works across multiple pages in one operation.
When a 9pm Deadline Meets a Locked PDF
Consider Priya, a freelance paralegal based in Melbourne. At 9:15pm on a Tuesday, she was putting together a property settlement package for a client. She had six separate PDF documents: a signed agreement, two identification scans converted from JPGs, a financial disclosure form, a cover letter, and a terms sheet. All needed to go out as a single merged file by 10pm.
She had used a well-known PDF platform before and was still paying for it monthly despite using it maybe twice in the past three months. She had also previously password-protected the financial disclosure form and needed to unlock it before merging.
She signed up for Riqa, bought the 20-credit pack for $4.99, and ran the Unlock PDF tool on the protected file first. Three credits gone, problem solved. Then she used the Image to PDF tool to turn both ID scans into a proper PDF page. Another two credits. Finally, she merged all six documents in the correct order by dragging them into sequence. Two more credits.
Total cost: 7 credits from a pack she still has 13 credits left on. The merged file was in her downloads folder by 9:38pm. No watermarks. No file size nag screen. No trial counter ticking down in the background.
How Riqa Charges You (and When It Doesn’t)
Step 1: Create a free account
Sign up in seconds. No credit card required at registration. You only pay when you’re ready to actually use the tools.
Step 2: Buy a credit pack
Three packs to choose from. Credits work across every operation on the platform and never expire, so there’s no pressure to use them quickly.
Step 3: Process your document
Upload your file, pick the operation, and confirm. The exact credit cost is displayed before you commit, so there are no surprises. Download your result immediately after processing.
One additional detail worth mentioning: if a compression operation runs and Riqa determines the file is already well-optimised, a credit is still used because the process ran. The site is upfront about that in its FAQ. That kind of honesty about edge cases is consistent with how the whole product is built.
Riqa’s Credit Packs and What They Cost
- 10 credits: $2.99 ($0.30 per credit)
- 20 credits: $4.99 ($0.25 per credit, saves 17%)
- 50 credits: $9.99 ($0.20 per credit, saves 33%)
Credits never expire. You can buy one pack today and come back six months later. The 20-credit pack is marked as most popular, and at $4.99 it covers a reasonable amount of document work for most occasional users. AI-powered summaries are listed as coming soon and will presumably draw from the same credit balance.
Who Should Try Riqa
Riqa is built for people who need PDF tools occasionally, not constantly. Freelancers, contractors, small business owners, job seekers assembling application documents, anyone who has ever paid for a monthly subscription and used the tool twice. If you process PDFs every single day at scale, a subscription tool might still make sense for you. But if you reach for a PDF tool a handful of times a month and resent paying $15 to $50 for the privilege, Riqa is exactly the kind of honest alternative worth trying.
