Difference between an archive and a page listing posts

I am wondering what is the difference between a wordpress archive page, and just a page template listing out posts?

Right now I have a custom archive page, listing all entries of a custom post type. This could very well have been handled by just a normal page.

Right now I am going to list out all blog posts (not on the front page, but as a news option in the menu), and I am wondering if I should use an archive page or create a page template that lists out posts. What is the different in intent for these pages?

Archive Page

An archive page is part of the WordPress Template Hierarchy, and is the template file WordPress uses to display the archive index list for a given post type. The custom post type archive template hierarchy is as follows:

• archive-{posttype}.php
• archive.php
• index.php

WordPress uses the query parameters to output this page, and posts are output via the main/default query loop.

Advantages

• Pagination works out of the box
• No user intervention required to create/display; WordPress creates the archive index view automatically, based on register_post_type() parameter has_archive

Disadvantages

• Pretty permalink might not be as pretty as you’d like – though you can modify it via register_post_type()

Custom Page Template

A custom page template can be used to display any arbitrary content. When used to display a listing of custom post-type posts, it does so using a secondary query loop.

Advantages

• User control of pretty permalink, via static page permalink

Disadvantages

• Pagination will not work out of the box, and must be fixed
• User intervention required to create this page: create static page, assign page template