Running two apps side by side with preferences?

I've read on here about running two Safari instances side by side, but for running two versions of an app side by side, is this possible on OS X other than using a VM? In my case, it's Big Sur, latest version on a 2019 MacBook Pro. A VM is overkill in this instance, as this is only for something like BBEdit, a HTML editor, or those sort of programs. How would you have two apps, but not sharing preferences, on the same user account, or is this not possible? I've already got a second admin account but this is more for my day-to-day one. It's for BBEdit. I'd welcome any advice as I've done some Google-ing but aren't sure.