The best replacement for dashes is hyphens.

The best alternatives to dashes are rated as following:
★★★★★  hyphens
★★★  commas
★★★  underscores
★★  parentheses
★  colons
★  underscores seo
★  dots phone number
★  en dashes
★  parenthesis
★  semicolons
★  ellipses
  ellipsis
  em dashes

Your alternative for dashes is not listed? Suggest!
Speaking about dashes, one probably shouldn't forget about n-dashes and em-dashes.

Other search terms related to dashes and their ratings are:
★★★★★ n-dashes and em-dashes
★★★★ appositives
★★ spaces
★ s logo
You have in mind a companion for dashes and it is not yet here? Propose!



Google Trends

Scale is based on the average worldwide traffic of dashes in all years. Click on graph for more.
dashes
hyphens
commas