I am totally new to repositories and git, but am going to start. I have installed gitlab (and git by default) on my server.

What is my next step? To add a git client? Which client? Are both TortoiseGit and SourceTree both viable, and is one preferred over the other?

I currently have phpED 8 professional, but am willing to upgrade if necessary.

Thank you

There are some scripts in this forum for adding Git functions to PhpED, but I don't think it is tight integration. You can also ctrl+right-click files in the Workspace panel to quickly bring up shell menus. Personally I use SmartGit.