The Best Wordpress Admin Themes You Could Possibly Find

February 27, 2008 - 27 Comments
Wordpress, Wordpress Plugins

Wordpress Administration can be a bland and boring thing, after a while it becomes tiresome. Time for a change, freshen things up. The availabilty of WP Admin themes is not great, so below to make things easier for everyone I have compiled a list of the best admin themes available.
These themes are not only good for personal use, but also for your clients, makes it easier to customize to there style.
I currently use the Tiger Admin Plugin.

Below are ‘The Best Wordpress Admin Themes You Could Possibly Find’.

1. WP Tiger Administration (http://orderedlist.com)

Name: WP Tiger Administration.
Plugin URL: http://orderedlist.com/wptiger.
Author URL: http://orderedlist.com.
WP Compatabilty: Wordpress 2-2.3.
Browser Compatabilty: Firefox and Safari only.

2. AFD WP2 Admin (http://aenonfiredesign.com)

Name: AFD WP2 Admin.
Plugin URL: …afd-wordpress2-admin-theme.
Author URL: http://aenonfiredesign.com.
WP Compatabilty: Wordpress 2 – 2.3. (Older versions available for download).
Browser Compatabilty: IE7, Firefox, Opera and Safari.

3. Js Style Admin + Drop Menus (http://jsbox.net/283)

Name: Js Style Admin + Drop Menus.
Plugin URL: http://jsbox.net/283.
Author URL: http://jsbox.net.
WP Compatabilty: Wordpress 2 – 2.3.
Browser Compatabilty: IE7, Firefox, Opera and Safari.
Notes: This Admin theme is based on the SpotMilk Admin. Its available in two colors: green and blue.

4. WP NiceAdmin (http://www.douglaskarr.com/projects/niceadmin/)

Name: WP NiceAdmin.
Plugin URL: …projects/niceadmin/.
Author URL: http://www.douglaskarr.com.
WP Compatabilty: Wordpress 1.5 – 2.3.
Browser Compatabilty: IE7, Firefox, Opera and Safari.
Notes: This Admin theme is also based on the SpotMilk Admin.

5. Planet X7 WP Admin (http://www.sevban.com/wordpress/planet-x7)

Name: Planet X7 WP Admin.
Plugin URL: …wordpress-admin-theme/.
Author URL: http://www.sevban.com.
WP Compatabilty: Wordpress 2 – 2.3.
Browser Compatabilty: Opera, Firefox, IE 7 and there is a few minor problems with IE 6 (no surprise there then).

6. WP Barunio Administration (http://barunsingh.com/software/wp-admin)

Name: WP Barunio Administration.
Plugin URL: …arunio-administration/.
Author URL: http://barunsingh.com.
WP Compatabilty: Wordpress 2 – 2.3.
Browser Compatabilty: Firefox and Safari only.
Notes: This theme is great for your clients, it is very easy to customize.

7. MyDashboard Plugin (http://dev.clearskys.net/Wordpress/MyDashboard)

Name: MyDashboard Plugin.
Plugin URL: …Wordpress/MyDashboard.
Author URL: None, no longer being supported.
WP Compatabilty: Wordpress 2 – 2.3.
Browser Compatabilty: Opera, Firefox and IE 7.
Notes: This theme needs a fair bit of tweaking to get to work the way you want it to (if I had the time I would). Have a look at all the amazing features though: Drag and drop to reorder the gadgets location to your liking, add or remove gadgets at will, fully extend-able – easily add your own gadgets to the dashboard using the very simple API, skinable – The look of the dashboard can be changed simply by selecting a different skin (CSS style sheet)…

8. B I T B Y B I T WP Administration (http://bitbybit.wordpress.com/code/wordpress)

Name: B I T B Y B I T WP Administration.
Plugin URL: …admin-theme-preview/.
Author URL: None, no longer being supported.
WP Compatabilty: Wordpress 2 – 2.3.
Browser Compatabilty: Opera, Firefox and IE 7.
Notes: No longer being developed by the author, make sure you read the ‘known issues‘ section.

9. SHUTTLE WP Admin (http://www.brokenkode.com/shuttle)

SHUTTLE WP Admin Name: B I T B Y B I T WP Administration.
Plugin URL: http://www.brokenkode.com/shuttle.
Author URL: http://www.brokenkode.com.
WP Compatabilty: Wordpress 2 – 2.3.
Browser Compatabilty: Opera, Firefox, Safari and IE.
Notes: This theme is not ready yet for download, but worth having a look. This will be the future of WP Admin themes. This will no doubt be the number 1 when it is released.

10. Spotmilk Admin Theme v2.2.1 (http://code.google.com)

Name: Spotmilk Admin Theme v2.2.1.
Plugin URL: http://code.google.com.
Author URL: http://ceprix.net (Its a dead link).
WP Compatabilty: Wordpress 2 – 2.3.
Browser Compatabilty: Opera, Firefox, Safari and IE.
Notes: The URL for the author doesn’t work, but I did manage to find a download link via Google Code. This theme is the base for a few of the other themes.

How to install your new Admin Theme

1. Download the plugin.
2. Copy/Move the Plugin to your WordPress Plugin Folder.
3. Activate the Plugin in your WordPress Admin
4. Hope it works!!!!!!!!! Of course it will.

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There are 14 Comments › Leave your comment

CP
27 Feb, 2008

*Stands and claps*

Another great compilation of WordPress goodies. Thank you Speckyboy.

-CP

Reply
admin
27 Feb, 2008

Thanks Cp.

Reply
Barry
27 Feb, 2008

Hi
I am the author of the MyDashboard plugin (blog address above) the current version is a beta until the 2.5 release if WordPress. Whilst it isn’t technically an admin theme, thanks for including it anyway.
Also, I am the one who is also making the Spotmilk theme available until the author of the theme gets their site up and running again, so a handy url to point to would be the one below (which I will update again once the site is back):
http://blog.clearskys.net/2007/10/25/spotmilk-administration-theme-mirror/

Reply
Moses Francis
27 Feb, 2008

Great list of admin themes :)

Reply
Kerplunc
27 Feb, 2008

The shuttle project was discontinued. WP is getting a completely new admin interface, which can already be seen on the 2.5 nightly builds. We have a test version running if you’re interested:

http://latestwp.kerplunc.com/wp-admin/

Username: admin
Password: demo

Nice list btw ;)

Reply
AmeyJah
6 Mar, 2008

WP Barunio Administration is really good admin theme and I am using it since last 1 year. It’s really good to see some different look while working on our blog.
Thanks for the link , keep it up

Reply
Shanx
15 Mar, 2008

Nice themes, but like Tiger or Fluency (the latter you don’t have in your list yet so you should look at it) the problem with many of these is that they don’t support the dropdown menus. WP should itself include them. Why should I have to click twice to get to, say, “Theme Editor”? (Presentation –> Theme Editor) These themes basically change the CSS, but they break some hooks that are used by the drop down menu plugins such as:

1. Drop Down Menus for WordPress Admin Panels By Andy Staines.

2. Admin Drop Down Menu for WordPress 2.5+ By Ozh.

When the admin themes can be structured without breaking this functionality, that’ll be nice.

Also, the “BrokenKode” theme is nothing special except for the three column Dashboard. Inside, it’s pretty much the same and in fact adds an annoying left hand side instruction on every page. Plus there are other annoyances such as the “post saved successfully” message coming up just by itself, so if you want to write another one, that’s an additional click. WP default is already a lot better. I’m not surprised that project has been on since “2005″ with so many coders behind it. Not sure what they’re doing.

Anyway, thanks for the list.

Reply
pluginbaby
20 Mar, 2008

dude.. u forgot about fluency theme which was awesome..

http://www.deanjrobinson.com/projects/fluency-admin/

Reply
Dean
24 Mar, 2008

I’ve just about finished adding support for Ozh’s Admin Drop Down plugin, so that both it and Fluency can be used together.

This is how it looks.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/deanjrobinson/2356911707/

Reply
hidrolik vinç
11 May, 2008

thanks

Reply
mutfak dolabı
13 Jun, 2008

thanks.

Reply
Rahul
22 Mar, 2009

Even better than what i was looking for. Nice themes.

Reply
Patrick
22 Jun, 2009

Love them all, however i don’t think any of them work on Word Press V.2.8 (as you have stated), However I’m sure for the people on older versions will love these themes!

Reply
Neel Wordpress Expert
11 Aug, 2009

Nice themes for the wp-admin. As wordpress is increasing rapidly and user wants more options. so it is better to give different look in wp-admin. And this list will help alot

Reply