Ive grown in soil for over 20 years and in Hydro for about 12 and have experimented with every trick in the book that I've ever heard of (and there's quite a lot)..but I've come to an understanding on how plants grow in both environments and what they need to reach their full potential..and here's my insight on which is better
Soil
There's just something about a good living soil that you can't get from hydro...building your own soil and perfecting it season after season can be very rewarding,and it's mostly about recycling and creating a self sustaining loop that only gets better as time goes on,renewing the same soil year after year...You have to be able to master micro organisms in order to create a good living soil with all nutrients made available which takes a lot of experience to start from scratch..plants grown in soil are known to have a slightly higher number of terpenes than in hydro,which is how your plants final product will taste and smell..in soil you have thousands of organisms that create a buffer zone between your roots and the medium,this greatly benefits your plant by preventing and fighting diseases and stress in the rootzone,with a good soil all you have to do is make sure it never completely dries out or doesn't stay waterlogged and the plant will generally be ok..This is not the same in hydro as hundreds of things can go wrong and ruin your entire crop over night
Hydro
Hydroponics....nothing in this day and age can beat hydroponic growing other than aeroponics but you need a high pressure water system and expensive water heads to make that happen, even if you can afford that an actual aeroponics system requires far more maintaince than hydro(not to mention the clogged sprinkler heads)...there's no soil or soiless medium that can compete with a fully functioning hydroponic system..my growth rates were averaged around 40 percent more growth in hydro rather than a perfect living soil grow..in hydroponics you are almost gaurenteed at least one lost crop and hopefully you'll learn the lesson so it doesn't happen again..even if your power goes out long enough can cause a bacterial plague to take over and kill your plants.and once something like Pythium or slime is present in your garden it can be nearly impossible to get rid of,even after removing the plants and bleaching the entire system it usually comes back again and again..but on the bright side if your bacteria free it's easy to set up your hydro system with a float valve and be gone for months at a time and still have everything still growing at excellent rates when you return..
Summary
If you have the money to purchase a hydro system with all the bells and whistles (WATER CHILLER,water pumps and enough air pumps and air stones to have complete reservoir movement) than go hydro or at least give it a try.I grow soil outdoors and my hydro indoors but if I had to pick just one I would say hydro is the way to go just because of how much more growth the plants get in shorter periods of time(bigger vegetables and more of them). However if you don't have the money to keep your temps down your gonna run into more problems than success and I would stick to soil.Once you see hydroponic root development and more growth than you've ever seen its hard to go back,although I still have and always will have my soil garden,but most of my attention goes towards the hydro side of life though.