James Oakley Reviews Radix as a Drupal Base Theme for Customization

James Oakley details his experience selecting and implementing the Radix base theme while migrating his website from Drupal 7 to Drupal 10. James, who prefers a balance between customization and maintainability, explains his decision to move away from fully pre-built themes and instead opt for a base theme that allows greater flexibility. He initially explored the Barrio Bootstrap theme but found its built-in assumptions and CSS management limiting. Radix, by contrast, provided a structured approach using single-directory components, Sass for styling, and Bootstrap integration without enforcing a predefined appearance. 

Oakley highlights Radix’s stability, active maintenance, and development tools, including a CLI for managing components and support for BrowserSync. He shares practical tips for managing subthemes, tracking updates, linking components, and leveraging Bootstrap variables for styling adjustments. While Radix does not include sidebar regions by default, he notes that this design choice allows for cleaner markup and flexibility for users who need them.