diff --git a/scrapy/commands/startproject.py b/scrapy/commands/startproject.py
index 4323cdb53..9e1e95ab1 100644
--- a/scrapy/commands/startproject.py
+++ b/scrapy/commands/startproject.py
@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ class Command(ScrapyCommand):
         move(project_dir / 'module', project_dir / project_name)
         for paths in TEMPLATES_TO_RENDER:
             tplfile = Path(project_dir, *(string.Template(s).substitute(project_name=project_name) for s in paths))
-            render_templatefile(str(tplfile), project_name=project_name, ProjectName=string_camelcase(project_name))
+            render_templatefile(tplfile, project_name=project_name, ProjectName=string_camelcase(project_name))
         print(f"New Scrapy project '{project_name}', using template directory "
               f"'{self.templates_dir}', created in:")
         print(f"    {project_dir.resolve()}\n")
diff --git a/scrapy/utils/template.py b/scrapy/utils/template.py
index 8075902b3..2177817d9 100644
--- a/scrapy/utils/template.py
+++ b/scrapy/utils/template.py
@@ -1,21 +1,24 @@
 """Helper functions for working with templates"""
 
+from os import PathLike
 import re
 import string
 from pathlib import Path
+from typing import Union
 
 
-def render_templatefile(path: str, **kwargs):
-    raw = Path(path).read_text('utf8')
+def render_templatefile(path: Union[str, PathLike], **kwargs):
+    path_obj = Path(path)
+    raw = path_obj.read_text('utf8')
 
     content = string.Template(raw).substitute(**kwargs)
 
-    render_path = path[:-len('.tmpl')] if path.endswith('.tmpl') else path
+    render_path = path_obj.with_suffix('') if path_obj.suffix == '.tmpl' else path_obj
 
-    if path.endswith('.tmpl'):
-        Path(path).rename(render_path)
+    if path_obj.suffix == '.tmpl':
+        path_obj.rename(render_path)
 
-    Path(render_path).write_text(content, 'utf8')
+    render_path.write_text(content, 'utf8')
 
 
 CAMELCASE_INVALID_CHARS = re.compile(r'[^a-zA-Z\d]')
diff --git a/tests/test_utils_template.py b/tests/test_utils_template.py
index b1aca5ed3..4f1e8772b 100644
--- a/tests/test_utils_template.py
+++ b/tests/test_utils_template.py
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ class UtilsRenderTemplateFileTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
         template_path.write_text(template, encoding='utf8')
         assert template_path.is_file()  # Failure of test itself
 
-        render_templatefile(str(template_path), **context)
+        render_templatefile(template_path, **context)
 
         self.assertFalse(template_path.exists())
         self.assertEqual(render_path.read_text(encoding='utf8'), rendered)