As in the topic.
I wonder since I cannot find this information anywhere and currently I am using a virtual machine (linux) on my vcenter which is cloned and then a special shell script is run on this freshly cloned machine to setup up environment and IP adresses etc.
Maybe I would be able to benefit from templates this way.
I think this will be helpful
https://www.robertparten.com/virtualization/vmware-difference-between-clone-and-template/
Few Differences in my opinion:-
Rest are already mentioned in link provided.
But first you need to search on your own and still have doubts than only ask, that's how we all learn.
Happy Learning!