Template matching is a common key technology in the field of machine vision. Currently, edge feature-based template matching methods are facing challenges such as time-consuming searching and low matching accuracy in a complex environment. In order to ensure the robustness while improving the real-time performance, this paper proposed a real-time edge feature-based template matching method. Firstly, in the stage of template creation, a new edge sparse method was proposed, and it can screen out the strong invariant edge points from the template image. It reduces the redundancy of template information while retaining the key template features to ensure the stability and improve the computing efficiency. Secondly, in the stage of pyramid search-based image-matching, a top-level pre-screening method was proposed. Normalized Manhattan distance was used as a constraint to exclude incorrect target poses from the top search results to speed up the search in subsequent layers. Five datasets with different working conditions were constructed, and the proposed template matching method was compared and applied to the fast visual dispensing process for free plane pose. The experimental results show that the proposed matching method can significantly improve the matching speed while ensuring high accuracy. And it can overcome interference factors such as illumination change, rotation, defects, multiple targets, and occlusion, enabling practical applications that require both high robustness and real-time performance.