django-cc-admin

The Django admin does its job, but it looks like 2008 and has not learned much since. django-cc-admin is a new skin and a set of tools on top of it. You install it, put it above django.contrib.admin, and the admin you already have changes. Your ModelAdmin classes keep working as they are.

Fifteen themes, all of them adjustable

There are fifteen themes, from a calm light one to a terminal and a brutalist one, each with a light and a dark mode. Every color, font, corner radius, menu layout and density can be changed from settings, per theme, and you can add your own theme or switch off the ones you do not want. Users can pick their own theme, accent color and font from the user menu without touching the site settings.

Live, without a reload

Lists, dashboard cards and menu badges update by themselves when data changes. New rows slide in, counts and pagination follow. If someone else saves the record you have open, a note tells you who did it and what changed, and the people looking at the same record show up as avatars. It runs over plain polling, server-sent events or WebSockets through Django Channels, and falls back to polling when a socket drops.

Notifications

A bell with unread counts, popups in the corner you choose, nine sounds made in the browser, desktop notifications and Web Push to phones even when the admin is closed. You can send them from code with one call, from rules in settings (a new order, a refund, stock running low), or from a page where a superuser writes to everyone, a group or one person. Each user decides what they hear and see, and can turn on do not disturb.

For people who live in the admin

A command palette, keyboard shortcuts that every user can rebind, a GitHub style activity page that shows who changed what and when, column hiding, filter chips, a warning before you leave a form with unsaved changes, drag to sort, row and page actions, CSV and JSON export, tabs and sections on forms, and a dashboard you build from settings.

Works with Django 5.0, 5.1, 5.2, 6.0 and 6.1 on Python 3.10 and up, tested on every one of them. MIT licensed.