> Why is this closed source?

Because free shit don't make money, yo.

Neither does an obviously flawed business model. I can't imagine ever wanting to use this as-is. Horribly insecure.

If it was self hosted and open there'd at least be the tiny chance of a support contract.

Its not like this hasn't been done before

https://github.com/billchurch/WebSSH2 https://github.com/stuicey/SSHy

I've been using gotty with great success for a while.

The truly evil business model would be to offer this as a free service. The company would be set up for a very profitable acquisition just by their placement in their customer's data streams.

I have to agree with this.