A clone is a copy of a virtual machine. A template is a master copy of a virtual machine that can be used to create many clones.
If you need to create a copy of the VM you can use cloning. The same settings of the master VM will be available in the cloned VM. You can create, configure, and install software on a single virtual machine, and then clone it multiple times, rather than creating and configuring each virtual machine individually.
A template is a master copy of a virtual machine that can be used to create and provision virtual machines. Templates cannot be powered on or edited.
The template acts like a blueprint of the VM.