Hi team,

I cant seem to find out if the Enterprise Search template in SharePoint 2013 is available only to those with SharePoint 2013 enterprise license or if companies with SharePoint 2013 standard license can use this template when creating new site collections.

Hi Thomas,

Did you ever find out whether or not the Enterprise Search template required the Enterprise license?

The key dependency for this site template to work is a hidden feature known as PortalLayouts.  When looking at this particular item, it can be activated by both Standard and Enterprise Licences.  The content of this feature include layouts for both licensed versions and stuff like the following: -

• People Search Results Layout
• People Search Results Layout
• Report Center Layout
• AdvancedSearchBox Web Part
• ategory Web Part
• RSSViewer Web Part
• SocialComment Web Part
• TagCloud Web Part
• OWA Web Parts

Considering that SharePoint occasionally leaves in deprecated functionality from previous versions, I'd say you've a good chance of being able to get that working. 

I don't have a Standard Deployment to look at, but if you compare your folder to the screenshot below, you should be able to see if you have the needed files to make it work.  The path will be something similar to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\FEATURES\PortalLayouts

It is indeed available in both SharePoint Server Standard and Enterprise edition - check out this page which contains a great way to filter for available functionality in both SharePoint Online and on premise - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/office365/fp123607

Rgds,

Joris [http://jopx.blogspot.com]