You may want to check this recent topic Help wanted: benchmarking multi-threaded CPU performance.
One question: Must it be a laptop? What about a desktop at home as a server, and your laptop as a thin client? In a desktop you get more capacity/$, and they are expandable. Set up a VPN on your router if you need an access from outside.
As for Windows vs. Mac: They are difficult to compare, as Windows doesn’t run on Apple’s “M” processors. On Macs, the M processors are supposed to be much faster than their previous generation using Intel. In any case on my relatively low end Mac Mini M1, 8GB (2020) Julia was about twice as fast as on a medium range i5 Windows Notebook a year older.
In the benchmarking topic, those in possession of a powerful computer were asked to share benchmarking results. My Mac Mini was certainly not in in the category, but here are my results - you may want to compare with your Mac:
[7.7, 7.6, 7.5, 7.5, 7.6, 7.7, 7.7, 7.6, 7.6] threads=4
[9.3, 9.8, 8.8, 9.8, 9.4, 9.3, 9.8, 9.5, 9.8] threads=8