We solve a joint similarity problem for pairs of operators of Foias–Williams/Peller type on weighted Bergman spaces. We show that for the single operator, the Hardy space theory established by Bourgain and Aleksandrov–Peller carries over to weighted Bergman spaces, by establishing the relevant weak factorizations. We then use this fact, together with a recent dilation result due to the first author and Rochberg, to show that a commuting pair of such operators is jointly polynomially bounded if and only if it is jointly completely polynomially bounded. In this case, the pair is jointly similar to a pair of contractions by Paulsen’s similarity theorem.

AMS 2000 Mathematics subject classification: Primary 47B35; 47B47