If you're going to extend user model, you would have to implement custom user model anyway.

Here is an example for Django 1.8. Django 1.7 would require a little bit more work, mostly changing default forms (just take a look at UserChangeForm & UserCreationForm in django.contrib.auth.forms - that's what you need in 1.7).

user_manager.py:

from django.contrib.auth.models import BaseUserManager from django.utils import timezone class SiteUserManager(BaseUserManager): def create_user(self, email, password=None, **extra_fields): today = timezone.now() if not email: raise ValueError('The given email address must be set') email = SiteUserManager.normalize_email(email) user = self.model(email=email, is_staff=False, is_active=True, **extra_fields) user.set_password(password) user.save(using=self._db) return user def create_superuser(self, email, password, **extra_fields): u = self.create_user(email, password, **extra_fields) u.is_staff = True u.is_active = True u.is_superuser = True u.save(using=self._db) return u 

models.py:

from mainsite.user_manager import SiteUserManager from django.contrib.auth.models import AbstractBaseUser from django.contrib.auth.models import PermissionsMixin class SiteUser(AbstractBaseUser, PermissionsMixin): email = models.EmailField(unique=True, blank=False) is_active = models.BooleanField(default=True) is_admin = models.BooleanField(default=False) is_staff = models.BooleanField(default=False) USERNAME_FIELD = 'email' objects = SiteUserManager() def get_full_name(self): return self.email def get_short_name(self): return self.email 

forms.py:

from django.contrib import admin from django.contrib.auth.admin import UserAdmin from django.contrib.auth.forms import UserChangeForm, UserCreationForm from mainsite.models import SiteUser class MyUserCreationForm(UserCreationForm): class Meta(UserCreationForm.Meta): model = SiteUser fields = ("email",) class MyUserChangeForm(UserChangeForm): class Meta(UserChangeForm.Meta): model = SiteUser class MyUserAdmin(UserAdmin): form = MyUserChangeForm add_form = MyUserCreationForm fieldsets = ( (None, {'fields': ('email', 'password',)}), ('Permissions', {'fields': ('is_active', 'is_staff', 'is_superuser',)}), ('Groups', {'fields': ('groups', 'user_permissions',)}), ) add_fieldsets = ( (None, { 'classes': ('wide',), 'fields': ('email', 'password1', 'password2')} ), ) list_display = ('email', ) list_filter = ('is_active', ) search_fields = ('email',) ordering = ('email',) admin.site.register(SiteUser, MyUserAdmin) 

settings.py:

AUTH_USER_MODEL = 'mainsite.SiteUser'