Whether you are shopping for a Mother's Day gift or high end electronics, you want to make sure you get the best price.

But as KIRO 7 Eyewitness News Consumer Investigator Wayne Havrelly tells us, the best price doesn't always mean the best deal.

When we shop online, it's easy to stick with the sites we're most familiar with.

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But there are special sites that can help you get the best price out there. They're called shopping bots.

Even though these sites are designed to save you money, you still need to be careful how you use them.

Say you want a digital camcorder. Consumer Reports gives top ratings to the Elura 50 from Canon. It's selling online at Best Buy for $599.

To see if there's a better deal, look at comparison shopping sites.

Consumer Reports just tested six of them, BizRate, MySimon and NexTag, as well as PriceGrabber.com, PriceSCAN.com and Shopping.com.

"Well, they all work about the same way. You type in the name of a product you're looking for. In this case, the Canon Elura 50. And you get back a list of sites where that product is available," said Helen Popkin of Consumer Reports.

A shopping bot can sort the results by price.

"At Shopping.com the camcorder is available at prices ranging from $419 to $699," said Popkin.

But be aware, the way to find the best deal is to sort by total price, which includes shipping and handling and any taxes.

"When you include shipping, handling and taxes, $419 becomes $479 and it's no longer the lowest price," said Popkin.

The cheapest price is actually $459 at another site. Shopping bots can also tell you about other shoppers' experiences. You'll want to avoid sites with comments like 'very poor customer service' and 'I would not shop here again.'

Experts found some shopping bots are better than others. Top ratings went to BizRate.com and Shopping.com.

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They're easy to use with the best combination of product availability and lowest prices.

The experts at Consumer Reports say Shopping.com has a slightly better privacy policy than BizRate. Shopping.com requires you to give permission to share your information. With BizRate, your information can be shared unless you specifically tell them not to.