Will migration assistant copy third party applications, plugins etc. to your new Mac?

Just be forewarned that it will take a long time for Migration Assistant to complete the job if the TM drive is a rotational HD. It took me 6 ½ hours to migrate 350 GB from my 7200 rpm HD. So set it up to run all night, go have a nite cap and go to bed.

It is best to use Time Machine.

And yes, it will transfer Applications and Plug-Ins. Just make sure to select to move everything that is offered to move.

Cheers,

Jack

The fastest, easiest way to migrate all of your user files and settings, is to plug your Time Machine backup drive into the new Mac during the initial setup.

Like Jack-19 stated it will copy all.

You will be able to transfer from a Catalina to Big Sur OS.

I have done this many times using Time Machine.