Django’s built-in admin is one of the framework’s killer features — but let’s be honest, it looks like it was designed in 2005. Because it was. The good news is the Python ecosystem has produced some genuinely excellent admin themes, dashboard templates, and full-blown admin frameworks that make your admin panel look and feel like a modern web app.
This list covers the full spectrum of Python admin solutions: Django admin themes that reskin the built-in admin with zero code changes, standalone dashboard templates you can bolt onto any Django project, and admin frameworks for FastAPI, Flask, and Starlette. We checked every repo on GitHub, verified star counts, made sure nothing was archived or abandoned, and tested live demos where available.
Whether you’re sticking with Django’s ORM or going async with FastAPI and SQLAlchemy, there’s something here for your stack. We’ve sorted by GitHub stars so you can quickly gauge community adoption, but don’t sleep on the lower-starred projects — some of them are the most actively developed tools on the list.
Flask-Admin is the grandfather of Python admin panels outside Django. It gives you a fully functional CRUD interface with minimal setup — point it at your SQLAlchemy models (or MongoEngine, or Peewee) and you get list views, create/edit forms, filtering, and search out of the box. File management, inline editing, and custom views round out the feature set.
The Bootstrap-based default theme is clean enough for internal tools, and you can swap in custom templates when you need something more polished. If you’re on Flask and need admin functionality without reinventing the wheel, this is the de facto standard. The 6k+ stars reflect years of production use across thousands of projects.
Grappelli is the OG Django admin theme. It’s been around since the early Django days and has outlasted dozens of competitors. The reason is simple: it works, it’s stable, and it doesn’t break when Django releases a new version. You get a polished UI overhaul with improved navigation, autocomplete lookups, sortable inlines, and a customizable dashboard — all through Django template overrides.
Unlike newer themes that bolt on JavaScript frameworks, Grappelli keeps things lean with a bespoke stylesheet and jQuery. It supports Django 3.2 through 5.x and the codebase is refreshingly well-maintained. If you value reliability over flashy features, Grappelli is a safe bet that won’t cause headaches during Django upgrades.
For more admin panel options across different frameworks, check out our best free admin panels collection.
SimpleUI takes a completely different approach from traditional Django admin themes. Instead of tweaking Django templates, it rebuilds the admin frontend with Vue.js and Element UI. The result is a genuinely modern-looking admin panel with smooth transitions, icon customization, theme switching, and quick navigation — all from a single pip install.
The install process is about as painless as it gets: add it to INSTALLED_APPS and you’re done. No template overrides, no configuration files. It claims 20,000+ websites in production, which is plausible given how popular it is in the Chinese Django community. Works with Django 2.x through 5.x.
FastAPI Admin is what you reach for when you want a Django-admin-like experience in the FastAPI world. Built on TortoiseORM with a Tabler UI frontend, it gives you auto-generated CRUD operations, authentication, file uploads, and a clean dashboard layout. The API-first architecture means your admin panel is also your API — no duplicating logic.
Setup is straightforward if you’re already using TortoiseORM. Define your models, register them with the admin, and you get list/detail/create/edit views automatically. The Tabler-based UI looks professional without customization, though you can theme it if needed. At 3.7k stars, it’s the most popular dedicated admin panel in the FastAPI ecosystem.
If you’re interested in how admin dashboards look in the React ecosystem, take a look at our list of best React admin templates.
Django Jet was one of the first Django admin themes to feel truly modern. It introduced a customizable dashboard with draggable widgets, responsive design, autocompletion, collapsible filters, and two built-in color themes — features that were revolutionary when it launched. The interface still holds up visually today.
The catch: the original repo is essentially unmaintained, and the developers pivoted to a commercial product (Jet Bridge). If you need Django 3/4/5 support, skip ahead to Django Jet Reboot (#16 on this list), which is the actively maintained community fork. The original is listed here for historical significance and because plenty of Django 2.x projects still run it.
Django Unfold is the new hotness in the Django admin space, and for good reason. It’s the only major Django admin theme built with Tailwind CSS, and it shows. The design is sharp — dark mode that actually looks good, responsive layouts that work on mobile, and an attention to detail that most admin themes lack. HTMX and Alpine.js handle interactivity without the overhead of a full SPA framework.
Beyond looks, Unfold adds genuinely useful features: WYSIWYG editor integration, custom action buttons, sidebar navigation, and extensible filters. It’s actively maintained with frequent releases and already has 3.2k stars despite being much newer than most entries on this list. If you’re starting a new Django project in 2026, this should be your default admin theme. Period.
Speaking of Tailwind, our roundup of Tailwind admin dashboard templates covers the broader ecosystem beyond Django.
SQLAdmin is for developers who want a clean admin panel without being locked into a specific ORM. It works with any ASGI framework that uses SQLAlchemy — FastAPI, Starlette, you name it. Point it at your SQLAlchemy models and you get auto-generated CRUD, search, filtering, CSV/JSON export, authentication, and file upload.
The Tabler-based UI is polished and responsive. What sets SQLAdmin apart from FastAPI Admin is the ORM choice: if you’re using SQLAlchemy (which most FastAPI projects do), this is the more natural fit. Configuration is declarative and clean — you define ModelAdmin classes similar to Django’s admin, which makes the learning curve gentle for Django refugees.
Django Suit brings Bootstrap styling to the Django admin with a focus on usability improvements. Sortable inlines, linked select boxes, WYSIWYG editors, and a tabbed interface for fieldsets are the headline features. The Bootstrap 3 foundation gives it a clean, familiar look that enterprise teams tend to like.
One important caveat: Django Suit uses a Creative Commons Non-Commercial license. It’s free for personal and non-commercial projects, but you’ll need a commercial license for business use. If that’s a dealbreaker, Django Jazzmin (#11) offers a similar Bootstrap-based experience under MIT. Still, for internal tools and hobby projects, Suit is rock-solid.
Django Admin Interface takes a unique approach: instead of hardcoding a theme, it lets you customize the admin’s appearance directly from the Django admin itself. Change colors, upload your logo, set a custom title, toggle between light and dark modes, and add environment indicators (so you never accidentally delete production data from what you thought was staging) — all without touching any code.
Popups are replaced with modals, the layout is responsive, and you can save multiple theme presets. It’s especially useful for agencies or freelancers who deliver Django projects to clients — each client gets a branded admin panel with minimal effort. MIT licensed, supports Django 3.2 through 5.x, and the codebase is actively maintained.
Looking for admin solutions beyond Python? Our best admin templates roundup covers all major frameworks.
This one is a full-stack admin system, not just a theme or widget library. Vue FastAPI Admin pairs a FastAPI backend with a Vue 3 + Naive UI frontend to deliver RBAC permissions, user management, API management, operation logs, and a polished dashboard — all in a production-ready package. The architecture cleanly separates frontend and backend, which means you can swap either side independently.
The tech stack is modern end-to-end: Pydantic v2, TortoiseORM, JWT authentication on the backend; Vite, Pinia, and TypeScript on the frontend. If you’re building a SaaS product on FastAPI and want to skip the months of building user management and permissions from scratch, this is a serious time-saver.
Jazzmin is probably the easiest Django admin theme to set up. Install via pip, add to INSTALLED_APPS, and your admin immediately gets a modern sidebar navigation, search bar, dark mode toggle, collapsible menus, and custom branding. Under the hood, it’s powered by AdminLTE 3 (Bootstrap 4), so the component library is massive and well-documented.
The “install and go” philosophy extends to customization — a single JAZZMIN_SETTINGS dictionary in your settings file controls everything from logo placement to menu ordering to color schemes. No template overrides required for most use cases. It supports Django 2.x through 5.x and the MIT license means you can use it anywhere.
Want to see what Tailwind-based alternatives look like? Check out our best Tailwind CSS templates list.
FastAPI Amis Admin takes the low-code approach to building admin panels. It uses Baidu’s Amis framework — a JSON-based renderer that generates complete admin pages from configuration rather than code. Define your models with SQLAlchemy or SQLModel, and the admin UI materializes with forms, tables, filters, and validation. No frontend code needed.
This is genuinely powerful for teams that need admin panels fast and don’t want to maintain a separate frontend codebase. The tradeoff is flexibility — heavily custom UIs will fight the JSON-config paradigm. But for standard CRUD admin interfaces, the speed of development is hard to beat. The project also includes a companion library for user authentication and RBAC.
Starlette Admin sits in a sweet spot between simplicity and power. It supports multiple backends — SQLAlchemy, MongoEngine, and ODMantic — so you’re not locked into one database strategy. The Tabler-based UI includes DataTables integration for sortable, searchable, paginated lists out of the box, plus file upload and custom view support.
What makes it worth considering over SQLAdmin or FastAPI Admin is the backend flexibility. If your FastAPI project uses MongoDB alongside PostgreSQL, Starlette Admin can manage both from a single admin panel. Authentication hooks in cleanly, and the Jinja2 templating means custom views don’t require learning a new framework.
Django Admin Tools isn’t a theme — it’s a functional extension layer for the built-in admin. It adds a customizable dashboard with draggable modules (recent actions, quick links, charts), a custom navigation menu, and bookmarks. Think of it as adding a homepage to your Django admin rather than reskinning the whole thing.
This makes it a great complement to other themes on this list. You could pair Admin Tools’ dashboard with Grappelli’s styling, for example, and get a genuinely powerful admin experience. It supports Django 2.x through 4.x and works well alongside other admin packages. The code is mature and stable — not flashy, but dependable.
For a broader look at admin solutions, browse our best free admin panels collection.
Datta Able is different from the Django admin themes above — it’s a standalone dashboard template, not a reskin of Django’s built-in admin. You get charts, data tables, authentication pages, user management, and a complete Bootstrap 4 layout with custom Django views. This is for when you need a full admin application, not just a prettier version of /admin/.
AppSeed maintains this (and several similar starters), and the quality is consistent: Docker support, CI/CD configs, and clean project structure. Chart.js handles the data visualization. If you’re building a custom dashboard from scratch rather than extending Django’s admin, Datta Able gives you a solid foundation to build on.
Remember Django Jet from #5? This is the community fork that keeps it alive. Django Jet Reboot brings all of Jet’s original features — the customizable dashboard, responsive design, autocomplete, two-tone themes, and collapsible filters — forward to Django 3, 4, and 5. If you liked Jet’s design but needed modern Django support, this is your answer.
The maintainers have been diligent about keeping pace with Django releases and Python versions. It’s AGPL-3.0 licensed (same as the original), which is worth noting if your project has strict licensing requirements. For everything else, it’s a battle-tested admin theme with a proven design language.
Piccolo Admin is part of the Piccolo ORM ecosystem — a modern async ORM for Python. The admin panel is built with Vue.js on the frontend and works with any ASGI framework (Starlette, FastAPI, etc.). You get auto-generated CRUD, media management, CSV/JSON export, and a dark mode toggle. The Vue-powered interface feels snappy compared to server-rendered alternatives.
The main draw here is the async-first architecture. If you’re using Piccolo ORM (which has its own migration system, query builder, and async support), the admin panel integrates seamlessly. It’s a more opinionated choice than SQLAdmin, but that opinion comes with tighter integration and less configuration. MIT licensed and actively maintained.
For dashboard solutions in the broader ecosystem, our Tailwind admin dashboard templates list covers the JavaScript side of things.
CRUDAdmin is a newer entry in the FastAPI admin space, and it focuses on things the others sometimes overlook: security. Built-in authentication, event tracking, audit logging, rate limiting, and CSRF protection come out of the box. Auto-generated CRUD from SQLAlchemy and Pydantic models handles the standard admin use cases.
The security-first approach makes CRUDAdmin particularly appealing for production deployments where you can’t afford to bolt on security after the fact. The documentation is clean and the API surface is small, which means fewer things to misconfigure. If security is a priority for your admin panel (and it should be), give this one a look.
This isn’t a single template — it’s a curated index of open-source Django dashboard starters maintained by AppSeed. Each entry links to a separate repo with its own live demo, Docker support, and documentation. Designs range from Soft UI to Material to Berry, all adapted for Django with proper views, URL routing, and authentication.
Think of it as a showroom. Browse the live demos, pick the design that fits your project, and clone that specific starter. It’s particularly useful if you want a standalone dashboard application (not an admin theme) and can’t decide on a design direction. The variety here saves you from evaluating dozens of individual repos.
FastAdmin’s unique selling point is framework agnosticism. One admin library that works across FastAPI, Flask, and Django — with support for TortoiseORM, SQLAlchemy, PonyORM, and Django ORM. If your organization runs multiple Python frameworks across different services, FastAdmin means your admin panels can share the same library and patterns.
It’s the smallest project on this list by star count, but the concept is compelling. Instead of learning flask-admin for Flask, django-unfold for Django, and sqladmin for FastAPI, you learn one library. The tradeoff is that it can’t be as deeply integrated with any single framework as a dedicated solution. But for teams managing a polyglot Python backend, it’s worth evaluating.
For more admin template inspiration across all tech stacks, see our best admin templates roundup.
Twenty options is a lot to digest, so here’s the quick decision framework. If you’re reskinning Django’s built-in admin, your top choices are Django Unfold (Tailwind CSS, modern, actively developed), Django Jazzmin (AdminLTE-based, easiest setup), or Django Grappelli (battle-tested stability). If you want to customize the admin’s appearance without code, Django Admin Interface is the move. For FastAPI projects, SQLAdmin wins for SQLAlchemy users and FastAPI Admin for TortoiseORM users. Flask developers should start with Flask-Admin — nothing else in that ecosystem comes close.
The Python admin landscape looks different from the JavaScript world. Instead of hundreds of generic dashboard templates, you get purpose-built tools that integrate directly with your ORM and web framework. That means less design polish in some cases, but far less plumbing to get a working admin panel. Most of these projects can go from pip install to functional admin interface in under ten minutes — and that’s a tradeoff many teams are happy to make.
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