Kevin Wilkie compares a couple of functions:
There is another function within SQL Server that many people think does the same thing, but with a slight nuance.
Sometimes, you just need to change out one character with another. For example, you need to make a “(” into a “[” to make everything consistent.
I’ve probably used REPLACE() two (or three?) orders of magnitude more often than TRANSLATE() but that’s mostly because I keep forgetting what the latter does.