diff --git a/vindex/map.go b/vindex/map.go
index 7c8b340..c83d8b0 100644
--- a/vindex/map.go
+++ b/vindex/map.go
@@ -274,7 +274,11 @@ func (m *inputLogMapper) syncFromInputLog(ctx context.Context) error {
 			}
 			workDone()
 
-			storeCompactRange := m.r.End()%256 == 0 || m.r.End() == cp.Size
+			// This is a performance tradeoff between flushing very often and allowing data to be indexed quickly,
+			// and too often, and having things block on syscalls. One full level-1 tile seems to be a good tradeoff.
+			const storeInterval = 256 * 256
+
+			storeCompactRange := m.r.End()%storeInterval == 0 || m.r.End() == cp.Size
 			if len(hashes) == 0 && !storeCompactRange {
 				// We can skip writing out values with no hashes, as long as we're
 				// not at the end of the log.
@@ -287,8 +291,6 @@ func (m *inputLogMapper) syncFromInputLog(ctx context.Context) error {
 			}
 			if storeCompactRange {
 				// Periodically store the validated compact range consumed so far.
-				// The choice to align with every 256 entries is an implicit bias towards
-				// supporting tlog-tiles.
 				if err := m.walWriter.flush(); err != nil {
 					return fmt.Errorf("failed to flush the WAL: %v", err)
 				}
diff --git a/vindex/wal.go b/vindex/wal.go
index 2630598..58483ef 100644
--- a/vindex/wal.go
+++ b/vindex/wal.go
@@ -57,6 +57,7 @@ func newWalWriter(walPath string, treeSize uint64) (*walWriter, error) {
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to open file for writing: %s", err)
 	}
+	w.bw = bufio.NewWriter(w.f)
 	return w, err
 }
 
@@ -66,10 +67,15 @@ func newWalWriter(walPath string, treeSize uint64) (*walWriter, error) {
 type walWriter struct {
 	walPath string
 	f       *os.File
+	bw      *bufio.Writer
 }
 
 func (l *walWriter) close() error {
-	return l.f.Close()
+	err := l.bw.Flush()
+	if cerr := l.f.Close(); err == nil {
+		err = cerr
+	}
+	return err
 }
 
 // validate reads the file and determines what the last mapped log index was, and returns it.
@@ -160,6 +166,9 @@ func validate(walPath string, lastIdx uint64) error {
 }
 
 func (l *walWriter) flush() error {
+	if err := l.bw.Flush(); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
 	return l.f.Sync()
 }
 
@@ -168,7 +177,7 @@ func (l *walWriter) append(idx uint64, hashes [][sha256.Size]byte) error {
 	if err != nil {
 		return fmt.Errorf("failed to marshal entry: %v", err)
 	}
-	_, err = fmt.Fprintf(l.f, "%s\n", e)
+	_, err = fmt.Fprintf(l.bw, "%s\n", e)
 	return err
 }
 
diff --git a/vindex/wal_test.go b/vindex/wal_test.go
index 06dc83f..40166b2 100644
--- a/vindex/wal_test.go
+++ b/vindex/wal_test.go
@@ -207,7 +207,7 @@ func TestWriteAheadLog_roundtrip(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
-func TestWriteAndWriteLog(t *testing.T) {
+func TestWriteAndReadLog(t *testing.T) {
 	f, err := os.CreateTemp("", "testWal")
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
@@ -237,8 +237,13 @@ func TestWriteAndWriteLog(t *testing.T) {
 			if err := wal.append(uint64(i), [][sha256.Size]byte{hash}); err != nil {
 				return err
 			}
+			if i%256 == 0 {
+				if err := wal.flush(); err != nil {
+					return err
+				}
+			}
 		}
-		return nil
+		return wal.flush()
 	})
 	eg.Go(func() error {
 		var expect uint64