Is CivicTheme the right fit for your website?
You might be planning a new website that has to meet accessibility standards from the day it launches, and someone has suggested CivicTheme(Opens in a new tab/window). It's an open-source design system for Drupal: a library of ready-made components, plus a Drupal theme that puts your content into them. Before you commit, you'd like to know whether it suits your organisation and how much you'd still need to build.
Or your website already runs on CivicTheme, and now you need a new look or a component it doesn't have. Maybe there's a newer CivicTheme release your team hasn't taken, because nobody's sure what it will do to your changes.
CivicTheme gives your website a tested, accessible foundation, so most of the custom work can go into what's different about your site. We created CivicTheme, and we build on it in a way that lets your site keep taking its updates.
How we build on CivicTheme
A new CivicTheme website comes together in 4 steps. If yours already runs CivicTheme, we start from what's there and pick up the steps your work needs.
1. We match your site to CivicTheme
We go through your designs and content with you, and match each part to a CivicTheme component or content type. Most pages can be put together from what CivicTheme already has, such as banners, cards, listings, accordions, navigation and forms.
Where your designs need something new, we tell you what it is and what it involves before anything is built. We also point out where a design changes how a component works, because that turns styling into development.
2. We set up CivicTheme with your brand
We install CivicTheme and create a sub-theme for your site: a layer on top of CivicTheme that holds everything specific to you. Your colours, fonts and spacing go into the shared settings that every component reads from, so your brand carries through the whole site at once. Where CivicTheme's content types suit your content, we use them as they are.
3. We build what's specific to you
New components follow CivicTheme's own patterns, so they sit beside its components in Storybook, a browsable library of every component on your site. When a CivicTheme component needs to change, we extend it in your sub-theme and leave the original in place, so it can still take CivicTheme's updates.
We also connect the site to your content workflows, media, search and forms.
4. We test it, launch it and hand it over
Automated tests run on every change from day one, and we check each component we build for accessibility as we go. Before launch we run a performance check. Then we write documentation around the way your team works, and train your editors and developers to run the site.
What you get
Everything we build is yours to keep.
Your website on CivicTheme
Your site runs on CivicTheme, with your brand and any new components in your own sub-theme, and your content in content types set up for it. Your designers and developers can browse every component in Storybook.
Automated tests and releases
Tests run on every change, and each release goes out through an automated pipeline, the same way every time.
Documentation and training
We write documentation around how your team works, and we train the editors who publish on the site and the developers who look after it.
What we've delivered
We created CivicTheme. In 2021 Salsa Digital engaged us to help build the component library, UI Kit and Drupal theme that became CivicTheme, and we were its founding technical lead until 2025. Our director, Alex Skrypnyk(Opens in a new tab/window), made its first commit in September 2021. He led the work hands-on alongside Salsa Digital's team, from engineering and testing to DevOps support and documentation. It was a paid engagement, and we value that collaboration.
CivicTheme's code is public on GitHub(Opens in a new tab/window), so anyone can read the work. We've also built websites on it:
- In 2023 we were brought in for a short engagement on an independent federal statutory body's move onto CivicTheme, on GovCMS. We set up its CivicTheme sub-theme and configuration, and every content type on the site is CivicTheme's own.
- For a not-for-profit organisation, working with a partner agency, we built an online hub of practical guides and research on CivicTheme. Most of its components come straight from CivicTheme, so the custom work went mainly into the filters for its research library. The first release went live on the promised day and the full site 4 days early. An automated accessibility check runs across its main pages on every build.
- This website runs on CivicTheme too, and its code is public on GitHub(Opens in a new tab/window).
What it costs
Every site needs a different amount of work on top of CivicTheme, so we price each project on its own. We talk through what you need, then send you an estimate before any work starts. For a defined scope, such as a new website or a new design for a site already on CivicTheme, we give you a fixed-price quote, and that's the price. Nothing starts until you've approved the scope and cost.
Where CivicTheme already has what you need, we use it, so the work we quote goes into what's specific to your site. Because most of a CivicTheme build is development work, you can also choose AI-assisted delivery, which costs up to 30% less on suitable work.
Smaller changes and updates after launch can run through a support plan: a prepaid block of at least 50 hours, used over 12 months.
Where CivicTheme fits in
CivicTheme runs on GovCMS, where we also build and support websites. Our migrations work brings your content across, whether it's coming from an older Drupal site or another system. When you need a brand or designs before the build, our brand and design work comes first, and the same team then builds what it designed. After launch, a support plan keeps your site up to date, CivicTheme included.
FAQs
What's your relationship with Salsa Digital?
Salsa Digital engaged us in 2021 to help build what became CivicTheme. We appreciate that collaboration and the opportunity. Today we're independent implementers and open-source contributors, and we work respectfully with the broader CivicTheme community.
Do you own any part of CivicTheme?
No. CivicTheme is open source, and Salsa Digital publishes it. What we bring is experience: we built core parts of it, we know its patterns, and we follow the community's practices to keep your site compatible with it.
Can you customise components?
Yes, carefully. We extend a component in your sub-theme and keep CivicTheme's original in place, so your design stays consistent and the component can still take CivicTheme's updates.
What happens to our changes when CivicTheme releases an update?
They stay in place. Your changes live in your own sub-theme, and we keep track of which settings belong to your site, so an update brings in CivicTheme's changes without overwriting yours. We test each update before it goes live and adjust anything it affects.
Is CivicTheme only for government?
No. CivicTheme was created for governments and corporations alike. We've built on it for a not-for-profit, and this website runs on it too.
Does CivicTheme work on GovCMS?
Yes. CivicTheme includes a module that sets it up for GovCMS, and we've moved a GovCMS website onto it. Our GovCMS page explains how we work there.
Will a CivicTheme website be accessible?
It starts from a strong base. CivicTheme's components are built and assessed to the WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standard, as our accessibility page notes. Your content and any new components need the same care, so we agree the standard with you at the start and test what we build against it.
Can you move our existing website onto CivicTheme?
Yes. It's worth considering when your current theme would need rebuilding anyway, for example during a Drupal upgrade, because CivicTheme gives the new version a tested starting point. Our migrations work brings your content across.
