Building frontend + backend : best practices ?

[eluser]Isuka[/eluser]
The first time I used a framework to build website, I tried Symfony and that's the way this framework works : you build an app for the frontend and another for the backend. So naturally I applied the same system with CI. It was logical to me that a frontend and a backend are 2 differents applications.

But it's seems that I'm the only one here who build a website this way
Maybe I should try to simply make a admin folder in my controller.

@Bramme : Where do you put your .htacces and .htpasswd the ? Simply in the admin folder of your controllers folder ?