Create custom user model in Django

| Tag python  django  auth 

User is tightly interwoven with the Django internally, Django documentation highly recommends implementing a custom user model every time after created a new project.

One simple approach is to extend AbstractUser which keeps the default User fields and permissions. Another approach is to extend the AbstractBaseUser which requires more work.

4 steps for adding a custom user model:

  1. Create a CustomUser model in a separated app accounts.
  2. Update settings.py, add the app and specify AUTH_USER_MODEL
  3. Customize UserCreationForm and UserChangeForm

  4. Register custom user model to admin.py

  5. Create a CustomUser model in a separated app accounts.
python manage.py startapp accounts

# accounts/models.py
from django.db import models
from django.contrib.auth.models import AbstractUser

class CustomUser(AbstractUser):
    pass
  1. Update settings.py, add the app and specify AUTH_USER_MODEL
# settings.py
INSTALLED_APPS = [
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',

    'accounts.apps.AccountsConfig', # new
]

AUTH_USER_MODEL = 'accounts.CustomUser' # new
  1. Customize UserCreationForm and UserChangeForm
# accounts/forms.py
from django.contrib.auth import get_user_model
from django.contrib.auth.forms import UserCreationForm, UserChangeForm

class CustomUserCreationForm(UserCreationForm):

    class Meta:
        model = get_user_model()
        fields = ('email', 'username', )


class CustomUserChangeForm(UserChangeForm):

    class Meta:
        model = get_user_model()
        fields = ('email', 'username', )
  1. Register custom user model to admin.py
# accounts/admin.py
from django.contrib import admin
from django.contrib.auth.admin import UserAdmin
from django.contrib.auth import get_user_model

from .forms import CustomUserChangeForm, CustomUserCreationForm

CustomUser = get_user_model()

class CustomUserAdmin(UserAdmin):
    model = CustomUser
    form = CustomUserChangeForm
    add_form = CustomUserCreationForm
    list_display = ['email', 'username', 'is_superuser', ]

admin.site.register(CustomUser, CustomUserAdmin)

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